(AFP) – Armed men have attacked an overcrowded dinghy carrying migrants off Libya, leaving at least four dead and up to 25 missing, the German NGO Sea-Watch said Friday.
The group said the Italian coastguard had sent a Sea-Watch rescue ship and a diverted oil tanker to help a dinghy in distress in international waters, 14 nautical miles off Libya, early Friday.
As the operation was unfolding, assailants arrived aboard a vessel with Libyan coastguard insignia and tried to steal the dinghy’s motor, a spokesman for Sea-Watch said.
The men, who spoke only Arabic, beat some of the migrants with clubs, causing panic which caused most of them to fall into the sea, the spokesman said.
Sea-Watch said it had rescued 120 out of the estimated 150 people onboard.
Its team recovered four bodies but saw other corpses in the water that could not be retrieved. They estimate that between 15 and 25 are missing, the group said.
The Italian coastguard confirmed that the rescue vessel Sea-Watch2 rescued 120 people before dawn Friday, but gave no further details.
According to the UN, at least 3,654 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
Attempts at the dangerous crossing are continuing despite worsening weather as winter approaches, with more than 2,400 migrants rescued off Libya in total since Sunday.
The Italian interior ministry said Tuesday that more than 145,000 migrants had landed in Italy so far this year, a figure similar to that of the previous two years.
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