300 feared dead in Italy migrant boat disaster
At least 300 people died after a boat carrying African asylum seekers sank off Italian shores.
LAMPEDUSA (AFP) - Three hundred people were feared dead Thursday after a boat carrying up to 500 African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Italian shores in the worst recent refugee disaster in the Mediterranean.
Rescuers and local fishermen were overcome with emotion as they spoke of chaotic early morning scenes in the water, with "a sea of heads" as desperate refugees waved their arms and screamed.
There were also stories of survival such as a young Eritrean woman thought dead and laid out with other corpses before medical personnel realised she was still breathing and revived her.
A UN official blamed a repressive policy towards illegal immigrants for the tragedy, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he hoped the disaster would be a "spur to action" to protecting migrants rights, and improving the public perception of immigrants.
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano initially reported "93 victims, including three children and two pregnant women", but rescue divers later said they had identified at least 40 more bodies in and around the sunken wreck.
With only 150 survivors plucked from the water more than 12 hours after the disaster, there were fears that the final toll could rise further to 300 or more people.
"Seeing the bodies of the children was a tragedy. We have run out of coffins," said Pietro Bartolo, a doctor. "In many years of work here, I have never seen anything like this," he said.
Lampedusa is one of the main entry points into the European Union for asylum-seekers crossing from north Africa or the eastern Mediterranean.
Migreurop, a network of immigration charities, estimates 17,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe in the past 20 years, crossing on rickety fishing boats or dinghies.
Survivors said they were from Eritrea and Somalia and had left from the Libyan port of Misrata.
They told rescuers they set fire to a blanket on the boat to attract the attention of coastguards after their vessel began taking on water and passing fishing boats ignored them.
The fire spread quickly, sowing panic on board, which caused the boat to flip over and sink, as people jumped into the sea to save themselves.
Raffaele Colapinto, a local fisherman who was one of the first on the scene, said: "We saw a sea of heads. We took as many as we could on board."
Visibly shaken survivors in thermal blankets -- many of them bare-chested -- were seen on the dock and being treated at the hospital where personnel said many had swallowed gasoline and sea water.
