At least 300 dead, many missing as migrant boat sinks off Sicily

http://www.trust.org/item/20131004085310-w3sxf/ http://d3pwrmdu9m15nc.cloudfront.net/2013-10-03T135618Z_1_LOVE99212PTLA_RTRMADV_STREAM-512-16X9-FLV_ITALY-MIGRANT-BOAT-O.flv At least 82 dead, many missing as migrant boat sinks off Sicily Source: Reuters - Thu, 3 Oct 2013 09:50 AM Author: Reuters More on: Refugees and Displacement Migrants are seen on Coast Guard rescue boat with a group that includes Syrian refugees, at Siracusa harbour on the island of Sicily, Italy, September 20, 2013. REUTERS/Antonio Parrinello * Mayor says 82 bodies recovered * Most victims Somalis and Eritreans * Up to 500 migrants packed onto small boat (Updates death total, adds quotes, detail) By Massimiliano Di Giorgio ROME, Oct 3 (Reuters) - At least 82 people died and scores were missing after a boat carrying migrants from Africa sank off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, officials and rescuers said. The mayor of Lampedusa, Giusy Nicolini, said 82 dead bodies had been recovered, mostly Somalis and Eritreans, and the toll was rising, with the bodies being laid out on the harbour. "It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," she told reporters. The coastguard said it appeared that there were between 400 and 500 migrants on the boat when it sank, and 150 had been saved so far. Thousands of desperate migrants from Africa arrive in Italy on unsafe, overcrowded vessels every year, with most coming to Lampedusa, a tiny island just 113 kilometres (70 miles) from the coast of Tunisia. Numbers have been boosted this year by thousands of refugees from the civil war in Syria, most of whom have arrived on the eastern coast of Sicily from Egypt. Four coastguard and police vessels and two helicopters were in the area, and a submerged vessel of about 20 metres (66 feet) in length had been identified in the water after it caught fire and sank, officials said. Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said in a statement he was being kept constantly up to date about the situation, with the death toll expected to rise. Coastguard official Floriana Segreto said rescue operations were continuing. A fishing boat raised the alarm at around 7:20 a.m. (0520 GMT) and began pulling people out of the water before coastguard vessels arrived on the scene. The boat sank just four days after 13 migrants drowned when their boat foundered off eastern Sicily. Lupi said more needed to be done to combat people traffickers who coordinated the transport of migrants in crowded and unsafe vessels. "It is a task which we have to take on and which the international community and the European community have to take on as well," Lupi said in a statement. (Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) =============== Body count from migrant boat disaster off Italy rises to 111Source: Reuters - Fri, 4 Oct 2013 07:39 AM Author: Reuters More on: Refugees and Displacement A coastguard vessel manoeuvres after unloading body bags containing African migrants, who drowned trying to reach Italian shores, in the harbour of Lampedusa October 3, 2013. REUTERS/Enza Billeci LAMPEDUSA, Italy, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Italian rescue workers have pulled 111 bodies from the migrant boat that sank off the island of Lampedusa on Thursday and expect to recover more than a hundred more from the submerged wreck, a coastguard official said on Friday. Authorities have rescued 155 survivors after the 20-metre (66-foot) boat carrying around 500 migrants, mostly Eritreans and Somalis, sank no more than 1 kilometre (half a mile) from shore. "Two motorboats remained in the area overnight and this morning divers resumed work but we expect to recover more than a hundred bodies from the ship," coast guard official Floriana Segreto told Reuters. In all, more than 300 people are believed to have died in one of the worst tragedies in Europe's decades-long migrant crisis. The disaster was triggered when fuel aboard caught fire, causing a panicked rush to one side of the boat which capsized and sank, throwing hundreds of people into the water. Italy is holding a day of mourning on Friday, and schools will observe a minute's silence in memory of the victims. ==================