Search for shipwreck bodies off
Print Edition
Choppy seas prevented divers yesterday from recovering more bodies of migrants who died in a shipwreck off Sicily that has killed an estimated 300, in one of the worst disasters of Europe’s immigration crisis.
Rescue teams have so far recovered 111 bodies and expect to find more than 100 others in and around the wreck, submerged in 47 meters of water less than a kilometer from the shore of the southern island of Lampedusa.
After 155 people were pulled from the water alive on Thursday, strong winds and high waves made it impossible for 40 divers to safely collect bodies. There was little hope of finding more survivors from the almost 500 passengers estimated to have been on board.
“Though the bad sea conditions persist, our guys are ready to go down if a window opens up that makes it safe for them,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said.
Though the tiny Italian island takes in thousands of immigrants every year and there have been similar wrecks in the past, residents were shaken by the sheer size of the tragedy. A black flag bearing the word “shame” was flying over the port, close to a cemetery of rotting boats used by migrants to make past crossings from North Africa.
Lampedusa, a tiny fishing and tourist island halfway between Sicily and the coasts of Tunisia and Libya, has borne the brunt of a crisis which has seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive in unsafe and overcrowded vessels.
Italy was holding a day of mourning yesterday, and schools will observe a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.
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