Some migrants saved from sharks
MEDITERRANEAN: Sharks set on migrants who fell from overcrowded boats crossing to Italy, the Libyan navy has claimed.
At least 31 people died and 40 were missing after migrants took advantage of good weather to attempt the crossing, the Libyan navy was reported as saying yesterday.
Italian media said the alarm had been raised in the early hours of Friday (local time) and two Libyan coastguard boats had encountered horrific scenes when they arrived, with some victims having been bitten by sharks.
‘‘We found dozens of bodies floating in the water and two small boats with hundreds of people crowded on board and others holding on or trying to climb aboard to escape from the sharks,’’ the Libyan navy said.
Three children and 18 women were among the dead, according to the Libyan authorities.
A further 200 people were rescued alive from two dinghies and then returned to shore and detained in Libya.
Photographs published on the Libyan navy’s Facebook page showed white body bags lined up on a quay and being carried on a patrol boat.
About 1800 people were rescued in the Mediterranean over four days last week. The International Organisation for Migration said that about 161,000 people had crossed the sea to Europe so far this year and almost 3000 were known to have died.
In recent days traffickers have been trying to get past the Libyan coastguard by spreading out departures along the Libyan coast and from Tunisia.
Traffickers have been using smaller boats ‘‘that are more difficult to intercept but which are even more dangerous for the migrants’’, a spokesman for the Spanish charity Proactiva said.
On Saturday the charity ship Aquarius rescued another 400 people off the Libyan coast and brought them to shore in Sicily. – The Times