Athens/Belgrade, Rabi'I 19, 1437, Dec 30, 2015, SPA -- More than 1 million people risked their lives this year trying to reach Europe by sailing across the Mediterranean and more are arriving even after harsh weather set in, figures showed Wednesday. Some 848,000 arrived on Greek islands from Turkey, another 152,000 went from Libya to Italy and a few thousand sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar, bringing the total to 1,004,216, dpa quoted the UN refugee agency UNHCR as saying. The number of arrivals was nearly five times more than last year and was up 16-fold from 2013. There were 3,735 confirmed deaths by drowning, mostly on the Libya-Italy route. Ferries collected some 3,000 who arrived on Aegean islands despite a winter storm and brought them to Athens Wednesday morning, the Greek coast guard said. --SPA 19:08 LOCAL TIME 16:08 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w