Italian navy finds 40 migrants dead at sea, additional 300 rescued
At least 40 migrants have died and some 300 others have been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, the Italian navy says.
The navy said that, because the rescue is still ongoing, it couldn’t give exact numbers of dead and rescued.
RaiNews24 TV, reporting from the navy rescue coordination centre in Rome, said the dead migrants were found in the hold of an overcrowded smugglers’ boat.
Europe is on track to see a record number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Commander Massimo Tosi, speaking from the navy ship Cigala Fulgosi while the rescue was ongoing, said: ``The dead were found in the hold.''
Asked by RaiNews24 how the migrants died, Cmdr Tosi said: “It appears to be from inhaling exhaust fumes.”
He added that the survivors included 45 women and three children.
“They are still counting the victims,” interior minister Angelino Alfano told reporters.
When rescuers stepped aboard, the bodies of migrants were “lying in water, fuel, human excrement” in the hold, Cmdr Tosi said, adding that among the survivors, “women were crying for their husbands (and) their children who died in the crossing”.
At least 2,100 migrants have died at sea this year trying to make the crossing from the shores of Libya, where human traffickers are based, to Italy.
Migration organisations say the crossing is by far the deadliest as tens of thousands of migrants brave the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. The exact toll of dead will never be known as some boats are believed by authorities to have gone down at sea without rescuers being aware of them.
