OAN’s Brooke Mallory
Tuesday, June 18, 2024 1:23 PM
Sixty-four people were also reported missing in the Mediterranean Sea, a UN agency said in a statement following a shipwreck off the coast of southern Italy on Monday.
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German aid agency RESQSHIP posted on social media website X (Twitter) on Monday that it had found 10 bodies submerged below decks of a wooden boat near the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, while rescuers from a separate shipwreck rescued dozens of suspected illegal migrants.
The boat, which capsized about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast of Calabria, had left Turkey eight days earlier, but then caught fire and capsized, according to survivors cited by the UN agency.
The Italian coast guard said in a statement that it had launched a search and rescue operation in response to a mayday call from the French ship, which was sailing in the border area where Greece and Italy are conducting search and rescue operations.
United Nations officials said the survivors and those still missing at sea are from Iran, Syria and Iraq.
The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre quickly directed two nearby commercial vessels to the area, and resources from Frontex, the European border and coast guard organisation, also lent support to the rescue effort.
The survivors were taken to the Calabrian port of Roccella Ionica, where they disembarked and were treated by medical staff, although one of the 11 rescued died shortly thereafter, the coast guard said.
“In the second wreck, crew from REQSHIP’s vessel “Nadir” found 61 crew members in a wooden boat that was filling with water.” AP News report.
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