MILAN (Reuters) – Two children were found dead and a woman was still missing following the rescue of migrants from a boat off the southern coast of Italy on Friday, the coastguard said in a statement.
Some 38 migrants were taken from the boat and transferred to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa while a search for the missing woman was ongoing, the coastguard said.
A Tunisian fishing boat, which first came to the migrants’ aid, reported an explosion onboard the vessel, it added.
The two children who died were aged one and two, Italian magistrate Salvatore Vella said in an emailed comment, adding his office had opened a criminal investigation into the matter.
Local media had reported earlier that the two small children had died from burns although an investigation into what had happened was not complete.
Some 1,735 people were either found dead or were missing trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year, data from the international Organisation for Migration (IOM) showed, compared with an overall figure of 2,062 last year.
Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes into Europe expect more than 150,000 arrivals this year as food shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East.
Some 116,000 people have arrived in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta after crossing the Mediterranean so far this year, after more than 123,000 arrivals in 2021, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir)
