100 feared dead in Mediterranean

Around 100 people were missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean on Tuesday after a migrant dinghy capsized off Libya, according to rescue teams frantically searching for survivors in darkness and rough seas. German NGO Jugend Rettet, whose boat was at the scene, said 23 survivors had been rescued by an oil tanker which was first to reach the stricken boat. The survivors and four recovered corpses were transferred from the tanker to the Acquarius, a boat operated by another charity group, SOS Mediterranee. A survivor told one of that organisation’s staff that the dinghy had begun to sink at 6.00am, four hours before the tanker arrived. “We were 122 on the boat, no children under 15, but there were 10 women travelling with us and only one survived,” the survivor was quoted as saying. Attempts to find any survivors were continuing but were being hampered by very rough conditions and the chances of finding anyone alive appeared slim.

Record death toll

“He had inhaled fuel fumes and sea water but happily we got him in time,” said Sarah Giles, one of the on-board doctors working for the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity. “He was unconscious for two hours but we were able to stabilise him before he was evacuated.” Other survivors, the doctor said, were suffering from symptoms of extreme trauma, hypothermia and intoxication and burns caused by fuel fumes. Many were in a critical condition. The latest deaths add to a tally of 4,271 mostly African people who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN refugee agency. This year is already the deadliest on record for migrants trying to reach Europe with uncertainty about the situation in conflict-torn Libya fuelling a higher volume of departures in difficult weather conditions at the onset of winter.