11 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The ship ‘Ocean Viking’, managed by the European NGO SOS Mediterranée, has rescued around 250 people in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in the last few hours, adding to the nearly 120 rescued during Tuesday in this same area.
The NGO said in a series of messages on its social media account X that the first rescue involved 53 survivors, including children, who were in a metal boat located south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“The Italian Rescue Coordination Centre (ITMRCC) asked SOS Mediterranée to stabilise the boat, which was taking on water and was on the verge of sinking,” he said, explaining that the teams managed to get the people on board before transferring them to an Italian Coast Guard boat.
He explained that “the 53 survivors, including women and children, all of them weak and dehydrated, said they had spent three days at sea. Many had burns caused by the fuel. They had left from Sfax, Tunisia,” he said.
The NGO said that shortly afterwards a wooden boat was located in the area between the Tunisian and Maltese areas of responsibility, in which 98 people, including three children, were rescued. During the rescue, another boat was found in which 43 people, including five children, were rescued.
Finally, he stressed that on Wednesday afternoon he received an alert call and located another boat carrying around 50 people, all of them suffering from heat stroke and dehydration. “A unit of the Italian Coast Guard completed the rescue,” he added.
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