Ten migrants were killed when their boat capsized 65 kilometres off the North African coast, while the Italian coast guard managed to rescue 70 passengers, officials said Sunday. The survivors - 62 men and eight women, one of whom was pregnant - were transferred to an Italian Navy ship for medical care. Many of them were suffering from hypothermia.
They were later taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Their nationalities were not initially clear. A Maltese search plane discovered the capsized boat on Saturday, and Italian vessels were sent to the area. Many of the migrants had already been in the water for hours, holding on to the half-sunken boat.
The bodies of three women were initially recovered on Saturday. The coast guard continued the search for survivors on Sunday with two patrol boats and a helicopter, the Ansa news agency reported.
They found seven additional bodies on Sunday. Tens of thousands of immigrants from North Africa have arrived by boat to Lampedusa and other areas in the south of Italy since the start of the Arab Spring uprisings early last year.
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