Fifty-nine people died, including some children, when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast early on Sunday, Reuters reported.
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The vessel had set sail from Turkiye several days ago with migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, and crashed in stormy weather near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria.
The number of confirmed victims was 59,” Crotone mayor Vincenzo Voce said as per Reuters, while a provincial government official, Manuela Curra, said 81 people survived, with 22 of them taken to hospital.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said: “Many of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing conditions of great hardship.”
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Ignazio Mangione, an Italian Red Cross official, said a very few of the children believed to have been on the boat survived.
