At least 21 people missing after boat capsizes off Italian island
Al Jazeera
At least seven people rescued about 10 nautical miles (18.5km) southwest of Lampedusa after boat capsized in rough weather.
Seven people have been rescued and 21 others remain missing at sea after the boat they were travelling in capsized off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard has said.
The survivors, all Syrian nationals, were picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometres) southwest of Lampedusa, a statement said on Wednesday.
Chiara Cardoletti, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy, wrote on X that the survivors were in “critical” condition and had lost relatives at sea.
The survivors told rescuers they had set off on Sunday from Libya, and that 21 of the 28 people they had aboard, including three children, had fallen into the sea during rough weather.
The boat “capsized repeatedly, leaving people clinging to the side of the boat as their family members drowned around them,” Nicola Dell’Arciprete, country coordinator for Italy for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a statement.
