Up to 700 feared dead in Mediterranean shipwreck
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 19, 2015
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Italian rescue workers rush an injured person, hands swathed in bloodied bandages, off a rescue vessel in Lampedusa.[Photo: UNHCR/F. Malavolta] |
Hundreds are feared dead after a migrant boat with as many as 700 people on board capsized on Saturday night, Times of Malta reported Sunday.
The incident happened in an area just off Libyan waters. Only twenty-eight migrants have been rescued so far.
The migrants were believed to have moved to one side of the boat and caused the overturn when a merchant ship approached, it reported.
If confirmed, the disaster would be one of the worst seen during the decades-long migrant crisis in the southern Mediterranean and would bring the total number of dead since the beginning of the year to more than 1,500.
"At the moment, we fear that this is a tragedy of really vast proportions," Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told SkyTG24 television.
No comment was immediately available from the Italian coast guard or navy.
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