Thursday, April 7, 2011

250 migrants missing after falling into the sea off Lampedusa

Rome. .- The Italian Coast Guard has found that at least 15 bodies have been recovered and identified on the high seas, of the 250 immigrants who are missing after the boat they were traveling capsized today about 39 miles south of the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to Italian media reports, the barge traveled about 250 people, of which 47 have been rescued, while continuing to search the work of other passengers.

The immigrants had sought help through a satellite phone, the sources said, which required that two Coast Guard boats and a helicopter of the Finance Guard responded to the distress call. The first of the Coast Guard cutters reached at 04.00 local time (02.00 GMT) the vessel carrying the migrants.

The adverse sea conditions hampered efforts to help the immigrants, who eventually falling into the sea during operations, according to sources from the Port Authority. They noted that these difficult conditions presented by the sea and the darkness so far have complicated the task of finding the missing.

The 47 immigrants who could be rescued were taken to Lampedusa.

No comments:

Post a Comment