88 dead after boat sinks off coast of Italy
By Hada Messia, CNN
October 3, 2013 — Updated 1044 GMT (1844 HKT)
Italian policemen and rescue workers stand next to the covered bodies of migrants at Lampedusa port on October 3.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Pope Francis prays for the victims of the shipwreck off Lampedusa
- He went to the island in July to highlight the issue of refugees
- As many as 500 could have been on the latest boat to capsize
- More than 160 have been rescued, officials say
Editor’s note: Are you there?
(CNN) — At least 88 people, including a pregnant woman and two children, died when a boat capsized and caught fire off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard told CNN on Thursday.
Coast guards were able to save at least 163 people, and the rescue operation is ongoing.
Lampedusa’s boat people: One man’s story
The boat is thought to have been carrying up to 500 people. Those aboard include Somalis, Eritreans and Ghanaians, the coast guard said.
Lampedusa, a tiny island off the coast of Sicily, was in the news this summer when the pope went there to pray for refugees and migrants lost at sea.
During his visit there in July, Pope Francis criticized what he called “global indifference” to the island’s refugee crisis.
“We pray to God for the victims of the tragic shipwreck in Lampedusa,” Francis said Thursday on the Italian version of his Twitter account.
Lampedusa, the closest Italian island to Africa, has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter European Union countries.
Just under 115 kilometers (70 miles) from Tunisia, it has been the first point of entry to Europe for more than 200,000 refugees and irregular migrants who have passed through the island since 1999.
But boats carrying migrants often are in peril at sea.
In recent years, the Italian Coast Guard says it has been involved in the rescue of more than 30,000 refugees around the island.
CNN’s Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.
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Scores killed as boat sinks off coast of Italy
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