Italian and Swedish coastguards said they found Scores of bodies of refugees in the hold of a boat off the coast of Libya
According to Aljazeera, the discovery was made after a Swedish ship, called the Poseidon, was sent to the aid of the stricken vessel by the Italian coastguard, which said it was simultaneously coordinating rescue operations for multiple boats carrying at least 2,000 people.
Swedish coastguard spokesman Mattias Lindholm told the AFP news agency that they had been able to save 439 people on the wooden boat.
"Unfortunately there were around 40 people dead in the hold," he said. "The bodies are currently being transferred to the Poseidon."
The Swedish ship was in the area as part of the EU border agency Frontex's search and rescue mission known as Triton.
The Reuters news agency cited the Italian coastguard as saying that about 50 bodies were found in the hold of the boat.
Italian media reported that another boat with about 700 people aboard was in trouble in the same area.
No comments:
Post a Comment