Six bodies found on tourist beach in Sicily
while nearly 100 others attempting to reach Europe are rescued.
The migrants had drowned after their boats
have run aground near the island’s second largest city of Catania
The Italian coastguard has found the dead
bodies of six migrants on a tourist beach in Sicily while nearly 100 others,
thought to be Syrians and some Egyptians, were rescued during an aborted
attempt to reach Europe.
“We were alerted just after 5:30 am (03:30
GMT) that a boat had run aground across from a beach resort” near the island’s
second largest city Catania, said spokesman for the port authority Roberto
D’Arrigo.
“Most of the migrants jumped into the water”
when they saw the coastline, he said.
The bodies of two of the dead migrants were
found on the beach while “four other bodies were recovered” by rescuers around
the boat, as they apparently did not know how to swim and drowned, authorities
said.
A three-year-old child suffering from
dehydration and a pregnant woman have been hospitalised.
D’Arrigo said that all the passengers were
young adults and one of the deceased was a teenager.
Most of the passengers were on the shore when
authorities arrived at the scene, he said, indicating a total of “91 migrants,
Syrians and Egyptians” had been saved and were currently being identified by
authorities.
Investigators said the 18-metre-long (59-feet)
boat was carrying around 120 people.
According to D’Arrigo, it was “totally
unusual” for migrants to land on a beach in Catania as “normally they arrive
further south in the region of Syracuse”, or else at the extreme southern point
of Sicily or the island of Lampedusa.
Source: Leadership
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