Eleven dead and dozens missing in two shipwrecks
At least 11 people have died and more than 60 are missing as a result of two shipwrecks off the coast of southern Italy, rescuers say, BBC reports.
51 people were picked up from a sinking, wooden boat and 10 bodies were found trapped in the lower deck near the island of Lampedusa on Monday.
In a separate incident on the same day, more than 60 people were reported missing, with 26 of them feared to be children, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. The boats were carrying migrants who had set off from Libya and Turkey, UN agencies said.
Survivors of the shipwreck near Lampedusa were handed over to the Italian coastguard and taken ashore on Monday morning, while the deceased were being towed to the island.
The boat had set off from Libya, and was carrying migrants from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN children's agency UNICEF said in a joint statement.
More than 23,500 migrants have died or gone missing in its waters since 2014, according to UN data.
