Migrant shipwreck kills 41 off Italian coast

ROME: Up to 41 migrants died after a small boat, which set sail from Sfax in Tunisia, capsized and sank off the coast of Lampedusa island.

According to Italian state-owned news agency ANSA, only three men and a woman survived the shipwreck. They were rescued by the motor vessel Rimona and transferred to the coastguard patrol boat CP327.

The four survivours were identified as hailing from the Ivory Coast and Guinea. According to ANSA, they informed the Italian coastguard that 45 migrants, including three children, left Sfax on Thursday.

After about six hours of navigation, the seven-metre metal punt capsized when it was hit by a large wave. All the migrants, according to the survivors, ended up floating at sea. Only 15 of them had life jackets, but they drowned anyway.

As search operations continue, no dead bodies have yet been sighted or recovered. The four rescued were only found yesterday, days after the shipwreck took place.

This news comes after it was confirmed on Sunday that two sunken migrant boats had probably set off from Sfax, a hot spot for Tunisia’s migration crisis.

Rescue operations along south Lampedusa are highly complex, the coastguard said.

Two dead, 57 rescued from migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s Lampedusa