Baby dies in Lampedusa shipwreck, eight others missing

A shipwreck off Capo Ponente in Lampedusa, has claimed the life of a two-year old girl.

Eight other people were still missing as at the time of filing this report.

A report by LASICILIA said Coast Guard patrol boats and two fishermen from Lampedusa, Giuseppe and Salvatore Del Volgo, father and son, rescued 43 people in total. They said that at least eight people were missing, including two children. But among the 43 survivors there was also a two-year-old girl who however died on one of the patrol boats. The little girl died while the patrol boat was taking her, together with the other survivors, towards the port. Instead, the two very young people saved by fishermen on a rock are at the island’s clinic.

The survivors said that 53 of them left Sfax in Tunisia on an iron boat. A short distance from the coast of Lampedusa, shortly after 2 pm, the vessel sank. In several groups, men, women and children reached the rocks, saving themselves. An inspector from the Immigration Office noticed the tragedy and immediately raised the alarm. The patrol boats of the Captaincy headed towards Capo Ponente where they recovered 43 shipwrecked people, including the 2-year-old girl who died on the rescue unit. Other migrants, two in their twenties, perhaps Senegalese, were instead rescued by two fishermen from Lampedusa. The migrants who landed at the port, while health checks were still underway, reported that at least 8 people were missing, including two children.