At least 82 migrants drown after boat capsizes near Sicilian island
Published: 2013 October 03 11:44:05 (4630 Views)
At least 82 migrants have been killed and scores are missing after a boat caught fire and capsized near a Sicilian island.
About 150 people have been pulled from the water off Lampedusa, as emergency workers race to rescue more survivors.
The coastguard said it appeared that there were between 400 and 500 migrants on the boat when it sank.
The UN says all the passengers on the boat are believed to be Eritreans coming from Libya.
Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini said the dead included a young child and pregnant woman.
She said bodies were being laid out on the waterfront.
"It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," she told reporters.
The mayor said some of the survivors told her they lit a small fire on their boat around half a mile from the shore to attract the attention after their vessel suffered engine failure.
The fire then spread, causing panic on board which caused the boat to flip over, she said.
Shaken survivors wrapped in thermal blankets arrived on the dock, as an emergency worker broke down in tears.
"The first assistance was provided by people on pleasure boats who heard the screams," Antonino Candela, a local emergency medical worker, said.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident "an immense tragedy".
And Pope Francis has called for prayers.
"Let us pray for the victims of the tragic shipwreck off Lampedusa," he said in a tweet.
The Pope visited the island in July and called for an end to indifference to the plight of refugees.
He landed on Lampedusa at the same time as nearly 200 immigrants from Africa were being detained.
Lampedusa, between Tunisia and Sicily, is a major entryway for asylum seekers into the European Union, with thousands arriving every year.
There has been an increase in the incidents off Italy in recent weeks amid an upsurge in arrivals - mainly from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Syria.
On Monday, 13 Eritrean migrants drowned as they tried to swim ashore when their boat ran aground off Sicily near the city of Ragusa.
In a similar incident near Catania in another part of Sicily in August, six young Egyptian men drowned trying to reach the shore.
- Skynews
About 150 people have been pulled from the water off Lampedusa, as emergency workers race to rescue more survivors.
The coastguard said it appeared that there were between 400 and 500 migrants on the boat when it sank.
The UN says all the passengers on the boat are believed to be Eritreans coming from Libya.
Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini said the dead included a young child and pregnant woman.
She said bodies were being laid out on the waterfront.
"It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," she told reporters.
The mayor said some of the survivors told her they lit a small fire on their boat around half a mile from the shore to attract the attention after their vessel suffered engine failure.
The fire then spread, causing panic on board which caused the boat to flip over, she said.
Shaken survivors wrapped in thermal blankets arrived on the dock, as an emergency worker broke down in tears.
"The first assistance was provided by people on pleasure boats who heard the screams," Antonino Candela, a local emergency medical worker, said.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident "an immense tragedy".
And Pope Francis has called for prayers.
"Let us pray for the victims of the tragic shipwreck off Lampedusa," he said in a tweet.
The Pope visited the island in July and called for an end to indifference to the plight of refugees.
He landed on Lampedusa at the same time as nearly 200 immigrants from Africa were being detained.
Lampedusa, between Tunisia and Sicily, is a major entryway for asylum seekers into the European Union, with thousands arriving every year.
There has been an increase in the incidents off Italy in recent weeks amid an upsurge in arrivals - mainly from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Syria.
On Monday, 13 Eritrean migrants drowned as they tried to swim ashore when their boat ran aground off Sicily near the city of Ragusa.
In a similar incident near Catania in another part of Sicily in August, six young Egyptian men drowned trying to reach the shore.
- Skynews
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