Rescuers search for the missing as migrant boat sinks off Italy

ROME: Rescuers searched yesterday for missing would-be migrants after plucking 56 people from the sea after their boat sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa overnight, rescue services said.
The Italian coastguards, who were searching the area along with customs police and NATO ships, said they had recovered the body of a male migrant.
“We have rescued 56 migrants who were found for the most part in the waters off the islet of Lampione or who had made it onto the rocky shore,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said, adding that the group included one woman.
“They are in good health although they are suffering from hypothermia, after spending hours in the water,” he said. Those rescued were taken to the welcome center on the island of Lampedusa, off Italy’s southernmost tip.
Some survivors said there had been about 100 people on board, apparently Tunisians, but the exact number of missing was not yet known.
Private vessels and deep-sea diving centers in the area, which is very popular with tourists, were asked by the coastguard to join the search.
The fishing boat carrying the migrants sent out a distress signal by satellite phone late Thursday night. It sank about 12 nautical miles off Lampedusa, the Italian island closest to the coast of north Africa. The first people were pulled from the sea around 0030 GMT, while some managed to swim to the small islet. Two were rescued by a German NATO ship while one exhausted migrant was flown to land by helicopter.
There was no sign of the wrecked boat and Italian media reports speculated as to whether it had quickly sunk or may have been towed back to Tunisia by a “mother boat,” which could have taken the remaining migrants with it.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at least 280 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
n FROM: Agence France Presse