Bodies of 13 women found after migrant boat sinks in Mediterranean
Reuters, Lampedusa, Italy :
Italian coastguards recovered the bodies of 13 women who died after a crowded migrant boat capsized in heavy weather as rescue boats approached it off the coast of Lampedusa, an island south of Sicily, local authorities said on Monday.
The coastguard said rescue vessels had picked up 22 survivors, but they feared many other people might have died in the accident – the latest in a long line of sea disasters to hit migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.
One of the survivors said she had lost her sister and eight-month-old niece in the tragedy.
The ship, which had set sail from Tunisia, had been carrying around 50 people, almost all from Tunisia and west African, the U.N. migration agency said.
Italian coastguards received an alert late on Sunday that a boat was in difficulty. Two rescue vessels found the ship, which was already listing, just after midnight about 6 nautical miles from the coast of Lampedusa.
Italian coastguards recovered the bodies of 13 women who died after a crowded migrant boat capsized in heavy weather as rescue boats approached it off the coast of Lampedusa, an island south of Sicily, local authorities said on Monday.
The coastguard said rescue vessels had picked up 22 survivors, but they feared many other people might have died in the accident – the latest in a long line of sea disasters to hit migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe.
One of the survivors said she had lost her sister and eight-month-old niece in the tragedy.
The ship, which had set sail from Tunisia, had been carrying around 50 people, almost all from Tunisia and west African, the U.N. migration agency said.
Italian coastguards received an alert late on Sunday that a boat was in difficulty. Two rescue vessels found the ship, which was already listing, just after midnight about 6 nautical miles from the coast of Lampedusa.
