SAD ONE:300 FEARED DEAD AS BOAT CARRYING 500 MIGRANTS CAPSIZES NEAR ITALIAN ISLAND AFTER CATCHING FIRE

A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized near an Italian island, killing at least 114 people and spilling hundreds into the sea. Over 150 people were rescued but about the same number were still unaccounted for.
It was one of the deadliest recent accidents in the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing that thousands of African migrants make every year, seeking a new life in Europe. Smugglers charge thousands of dollars a head to slip people into Europe aboard overcrowded, barely seaworthy fishing boats, providing no life vests or other safety features.


“We need only caskets, certainly not ambulances,” Pietro Bartolo, chief of health services on Lampedusa, told Radio 24. He gave the death toll at 94 but said it would certainly rise as search operations continued.
“It’s an immense tragedy,” said Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini.
Italy’s coast guard later said divers saw at least another 20 bodies around the boat, which was now lying on the bottom of the sea.
Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland – a mere 113 kilometres off the coast of Tunisia – and is the frequent destination for smugglers’ boats.
The 20-metre boat was believed to be carrying 450 to 500 people, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The boat left from Tripoli with migrants from Eritrea, Ghana and Somalia, Italian coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla said.
Antonio Candela, a government health commissioner, said 159 people had been rescued.
“Most of them can’t swim. Only the strongest survived,” said Simona Moscarelli, a legal expert for the IOM in Rome.