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At least 110 people are feared drowned off Libya after a migrant shipwreck and more may have died in another stricken vessel, the UN’s refugee agency said Thursday citing survivor testimony.
“A vessel with around 140 people on board overturned Wednesday just a few hours after setting off from Libya, throwing everyone into the water. Only 29 people survived,” UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Sami told AFP.
The Norwegian Siem Pilot was first on the scene, some 20 nautical miles off Libya, and rescued the survivors as well as recovering 12 bodies from the water.
Those pulled to safety were transferred to the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coast guard. They included two women who told the UN agency they believed they were the only survivors from a shipwreck in which some 125 people drowned.
“They told us they were on a faulty dinghy which began to sank as soon as they set sail. They were the only survivors,” Ms. Sami said. But the Italian coast guard said it had no information on a second reported rescue on Wednesday.
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