59 African immigrants rescued
2007-08-30 07:20
Rome - The Italian coast guard said on Wednesday that it had rescued 59 African immigrants who had been adrift off the Libyan coast and whose SOS call had first alerted British coast guards.
Italian news agency ANSA said the immigrants, who included nine women and five children, had been taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa off Sicily.
The immigrants said two pregnant women died during the voyage and were thrown overboard.
According to their own account, the immigrants, who were from Eritrea and Ethiopia, left Libya at the weekend in an overloaded boat and water started leaking in on the third day.
One of them called his parents in Britain by satellite phone who alerted that country's coast guard to the alleged castaways. Britain in turn alerted Italy, Malta and Libya.