At least 10 people have died and dozens are missing after two separate shipwrecks close to the Italian coast, rescuers said.
Ten bodies were found on Monday in the lower deck of a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean by rescuers from Nadir, a ship operated by the German charity ResQship. The charity said it saved 51 people who were onboard the sinking vessel, which is believed to have departed from Tunisia.
Alarm Phone, a hotline service for people in distress while crossing the Mediterranean, saidon X: “We were alerted to a boat in distress, carrying about 60 people. Not EU authorities but the small Nadir offered assistance. Unfortunately, they came too late for the 10 people who died in the lower deck. EU borders continue to kill!”
The shipwreck happened about 40 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italy’s Rai News reported.
Separately, 50 people were reported missing on Monday afternoon in a shipwreck in the Ionian Sea, about 100 miles off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy. Twelve people including a pregnant woman were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Roccella Ionica port. They had been travelling on a sailing boat that had left Turkey in recent days, according to reports in the Italian press. There were people of Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian nationality onboard.