The Italian cost guard said Thursday
they had been contacted Tuesday by a migrant boat that
eventually sank killing hundreds of people including scores of
children Wednesday, and had informed their Greek counterparts
about its approach to Greece, wildly veering off its original
course to Italy from Tobruk in Libya.
The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre received an
e-mail on Tuesday morning indicating a vessel in distress with
around 750 migrants on board, the Italian authorities said.
No location was given in the report, only the number of a
satellite phone on board.
The Rome Coast Guard Operations Centre, upon receiving the
communication, contacted the number, at the same time initiating
the procedures to locate the phone. Having ascertained that the
vessel was in the area of responsibility for search and rescue
(SAR) at sea in Greece, 60 nautical miles from the Greek coast
and 260 nautical miles from the Italian coast, the Centre
immediately contacted the Greek Coast Guard, providing it with
all the information it needed for rescue operations, said the
Italian Coast Guard in its reconstruction of the shipwreck off
Pylos, Greece.
Some 78 of the migrants aboard have been confirmed as dead and
105 rescued, with hundreds missing including around 100 children
who were in the hold of the trawler, which capsized after a
Greek coast guard ship started tugging it into safety using a
rope.
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