Twenty people are missing after falling into the sea from a tilting boat after it started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya, according to survivors.
Carrying 27 passengers, the six-metre boat had left Zuwara in Libya at 10pm on Monday. Despite the waves, seven people managed to continue the journey on the rickety vessel before being found by an Italian police patrol boat on Tuesday night close to the southern island of Lampedusa.
It was initially believed that the vessel had capsized close to Lampedusa, and so an overnight search and rescue operation was carried out by the Italian police and coastguard in the area of sea south-west of the island.
But according to witness statements from six adult survivors reported by the Italian press, the boat started to take in water about five hours after its departure from Libya and tilted, creating panic and causing 20 passengers to fall overboard.
The witnesses, who included two people from Syria, two from Egypt and two from Sudan, said five women and three children were among those who fell overboard. They said the sea was rough and the winds strong. The seventh survivor was an eight-year-old boy from Syria. All have been taken to Porto Empedocle in Sicily.
According to the news agency Ansa, Italian authorities have ceased the search and reported the incident to their Libyan and Maltese counterparts.
In a separate incident on Monday, two people including a five-year-old child died and 17 survived after the vessel they were on broke down off the northern Tunisian coastline during an attempt to reach Europe.
According to Alarm Phone, an organisation that runs a hotline for people in distress at sea, three boats have capsized off Tunisia since Tuesday.
“So many people have needlessly died and disappeared,” the organisation wrote on X. “What a horrible way to start the new year. Our condolences to the relatives and friends of the dead.”
