Ship with 600 migrants sinks off Libya

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Ship with 600 migrants sinks off Libya

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An overcrowded ship carrying 600 people trying to flee Libya sank just outside the port of Tripoli.

09 May,2011 11:09 pm

Aid officials were still trying to confirm the fate of those people after the vessel broke apart on Friday in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, UNHCR spokeswoman Laura Boldrini said.Witnesses who left the Libyan capital on another boat shortly afterward reported seeing remnants of the sunken ship and the bodies of some passengers floating in the sea. Other witnesses saw passengers swimming to shore but it was unclear how many survived, according to the International Organisation for Migration.Its staff on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa interviewed a Somali woman who said she lost her four-month-old baby in the sinking. The woman swam to shore and managed to board another boat heading to Italy, the IOM said in a statement on Monday.At least three other boats that left Libya in late March have disappeared, with hundreds feared dead, Boldrini said.