10 perish in Mediterreanean shipwreck: report

ROME: Italian coastguards recovered the bodies of seven would-be immigrants from the Mediterranean on Sunday after their boat sank between the Libyan coast and the Italian island of Lampedusa, bringing the death toll to 10, the Ansa news agency said.

The bodies of three women had been found by coastguards overnight but another 62 men and eight women, one of them pregnant, were rescued, it said.

It did not disclose the nationalities of those on the boat, which got into difficulties about 35 miles (60 kilometres) off the Libyan coast and 140 miles from Lampedusa.

Italian authorities had moved after a call for help made by satellite phone, and informed colleagues in Libya and Malta.

The stricken boat was later spotted by a Maltese plane.

In September a boat carrying over 100 Tunisian migrants sank off Lampedusa. Rescue services only managed to pluck 56 people to safety and the others were lost at sea.

Each year, thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Africa, attempt the crossing of the Mediterranean in often overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels in a bid to reach the European Union.

Rome said in September that 8,000 clandestine migrants had landed on Italian beaches since the start of the year.

However the figure represents a sharp drop from the figure of 60,000 last year when the Arab Spring uprising saw a vast increase in refugees and immigrants fleeing the region for the West.

Rome attributed the decline in part to a deal with North African countries to prevent boats leaving their shores. (AFP)