The civil rescue sail boat Nadir early
on Sunday intervened to assist approximately 130 migrants and
refugees on an overcrowded two-decked wooden boat that had been
adrift with a broken engine in the Central Mediterranean for
three days.
The ship operated by German non-governmental organisation
ResQship had been alerted to the distress situation by the
hotline Alarmphone.
The Italian coast guard subsequently arrived on the scene to
provide support and all the people on board were rescued.
On its twitter account ResQship described a situation of panic.
"In desperation, some people jumped into the water and wanted to
swim to the Nadir. Our RHIB crew pulled them out of the water
and brought them back to the boat to avoid copycat effects," it
said.
"When the Italian coast guard arrived, panic broke out, some
people fell into the water during takeover or got caught between
the boats. All could be rescued," continued the NGO.
The survivors were said to include over 15 minors and to be
mostly from Mali and Syria.
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