Up to 100 people missing in two Mediterranean shipwrecks

Sunday 01/05/2016
Rough seas hamper attempts to find any other survivors

ROME - Fifteen migrants are missing after their boat sank on Friday, the second shipwreck in the Mediterranean that day, bringing to almost 100 the number of lives lost, the UN said Sunday.

A boat carrying around 120 people had sunk early Friday, four hours after leaving Libya for Italy, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said, adding that "some 15 persons went missing".

She said four Nigerians, two people from the Ivory Coast, three from Guinea, two from Sudan and one from Mali were among the missing.






IOM spokesman in Italy Flavio Di Giacomo said Saturday that the vessel had been "in a very bad state, was taking on water and many people fell into the water and drowned."






The coastguard received a call from a satellite phone late Friday that helped locate the stricken inflatable and called on the merchant ship to make a detour to the area about four miles (seven kilometres) off the Libyan coast near Sabratha.


Images released by the coastguard showed two women wrapped in shawls and blankets stepping off one of their vessels.

Giacomo said five unaccompanied minors aged between 16 and 17 were among those rescued.
