41 migrants, including 3 children, missing after Mediterranean shipwreck
- Italian authorities said 41 migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean
- The survivors, a 13-year-old boy on his own, a woman and two men, managed to survive the shipwreck by floating on inner tubes, before reaching another boat
Forty-one migrants including three children are feared dead after a shipwreck last week in the Mediterranean, UN agencies said, citing four survivors brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday.
Their metal boat overturned in bad weather during the night of Thursday to Friday after setting off from the Tunisian port of Sfax, said a joint statement from the UN agencies for refugees, children and migration.
The survivors – a 13-year-old boy on his own, a woman and two men – were rescued by a merchant ship and brought to Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, they said.
In a separate statement, the Italian Red Cross, which manages the migrant reception centre on the island, said the four were generally in good health.
They said they were from the Ivory Coast and Guinea, and were unrelated to the missing migrants, it said.