📷 Image Credits: Onmanorama
Tragic Shipwrecks off Italy’s Coast: 11 Killed, 60 Missing, Including 26 Children. Sixty-four people are missing in the Mediterranean Sea and several were rescued after their ship wrecked off Italy’s southern coast Monday. In a separate shipwreck, rescue workers evacuated dozens of suspected migrants but found 10 bodies trapped below the deck of a wooden boat off Italy’s tiny Lampedusa island. The boat that wrecked about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off Calabria had set off from Turkey eight days earlier, but caught fire and overturned, the U.N. agencies said, citing survivors. The search-and-rescue operation started following a mayday call by a French boat, the Italian coast guard said in a statement. The survivors and people still missing at sea came from Iran, Syria and Iraq, the U.N. agencies said. The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center immediately diverted two merchant vessels sailing nearby to the scene of the rescue. Assets from the European border and coast guard agency Frontex also helped. The survivors were brought to the Calabrian port of Roccella Jonica, where they were disembarked and entrusted to the care of medical personnel. One of the 11 rescued migrants died soon after, the coast guard said. In the second shipwreck, the crew aboard Resqship’s boat, the Nadir, found 61 people on the wooden boat, which was full of water. “Our crew was able to evacuate 51 people, two of whom were unconscious. The 10 dead were in the flooded lower deck of the boat.” This tragic incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangerous migration routes that vulnerable individuals attempt to undertake in search of a better life. Our thoughts are with the families of those affected by these devastating shipwrecks, and it highlights the urgent need for EU governments to enhance search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean to prevent further loss of life.
