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A picture released by the Italian coastguard shows immigrants waving shortly before being rescued near the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, on August 8, 2013/AFP

World

Scores dead in migrant boat disaster off Italy

“We don’t need ambulances unfortunately, we need hearses,” Bartolo said.

“There are still hundreds missing,” he added.

As hopes faded of finding more survivors, the coast guard, border patrol, fire brigade and navy were all taking part in the search and were joined by fishing trawlers and pleasure boats.

The asylum-seekers said they were from Eritrea and Somalia and local police were quoted as saying they believed the boat had left from Libyan shores.

“We left two days ago from the Libyan port of Misrata. We were 500 on that boat, we could hardly move,” one survivor said, ANSA reported.

“Three fishing boats spotted us during the crossing but did not rescue us,” he said.

Prosecutors have opened an inquiry for multiple murders, as well as favouring illegal immigration.

A young Tunisian man believed to be one of the crew members has been detained, ANSA reported.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident “an immense tragedy” in a tweet.

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Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa in July to plead for more tolerance and attention to the plight of refugees, called for prayers.

“This is shameful,” the pope said at a Vatican conference. “Let us join forces so these tragedies never happen again.”

The local archbishop, Francesco Montenegro, said: “We cannot keep on counting the dead. We have to mobilise, do something concrete to avoid these constant tragedies of despair”.

Lampedusa is an Italian island lying between Tunisia and Sicily and is a major entryway for asylum-seekers into the European Union, with thousands arriving every year.

“I am dismayed at the rising global phenomenon of migrants and people fleeing conflict or persecution and perishing at sea,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

There has been an increase in the incidents off Italy in recent weeks amid an upsurge in arrivals mainly from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Syria.

On Monday, 13 Eritrean asylum seekers drowned as they tried to swim ashore when their boat ran aground off Sicily near the city of Ragusa.

In a similar incident near Catania in another part of Sicily in August, six young Egyptian men drowned trying to reach the shore.

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