... as its coastguards dramatically torch smugglers’ boats

THIS is the moment the Italian coastguard tosses a flare into a people-smugglers’ boat on the Mediterranean.

Within seconds, the rubber dinghy is engulfed in flames as thick black smoke rises into the sky. It is one of dozens destroyed in this way on any single day as the coastguard battles to stop people smugglers bringing hundreds of migrants from Africa to Europe.

The coastguard says that destroying the boats – after rescuing their migrant occupants – is the only way to prevent them from being used again.