breaking latest news – It was a massacre of migrants that took place around five o’clock yesterday morning in the stretch of water in front of the Steccato locality in the municipality of Cutro, about twenty kilometers from the capital Crotone. At that time a old trawler loaded with migrants, at least 150, but someone among the survivors speaks of about two hundred, he was approaching the beach when the fury of the sea, force three with waves two meters high, slammed him against the rocks. The battered wooden boat broke in two and literally shattered. Many of the people on board were thrown into the water, others were stranded in the wreckage.
The alarm was raised by a fisherman who was passing through the area and noticed the already destroyed boat and the first bodies floating in the water. An apocalyptic situation presented itself in the eyes of the rescuers who gradually arrived on the spot – carabinieri, state police, financial police, harbor master’s office, firefighters, 118 personnel, Italian red cross.
Gradually they began to recover the bodies pushed by the tide onto the shoreline, first about twenty, then more and more until, at present, there are 59 victims, including 12 children and 33 women, as announced by the Prefecture of Croton.
The recovery operations, which never stopped throughout the day, were also made difficult by the prohibitive conditions of the sea, three bodies were found on the beach of Belcastro, in the Catanzaro area, a few tens of kilometers from the site of the shipwreck.
©Simone Puccio
The beach in the Crotone area where the bodies were found
The beach in the Crotone area where the bodies were found
Fortunately, many also survived, including many minors, 80 people in all, 59 of which have already been transferred to the asylum seekers center in Isola Capo Rizzuto while another 21 are currently hospitalized in the Crotone civil hospital, only one of which is in serious condition. The police forces detained one of the alleged smugglers.
The boat loaded with migrants mostly from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria left four days ago from the port of Izmir, Turkey. The vessel was sighted yesterday evening about 40 miles off the coast of Crotone by a patrolling Frontex aircraft.
When the alarm went off in the area, a lookout from the naval operational section of Crotone and a patrol vessel from the naval air group of Taranto had been sent. However, the prohibitive sea conditions prevented them from reaching the area and the vehicles had to return to their moorings. The land search device was then started and the alarm was also passed on to the police forces. Once at the landing site, however, it was not possible to do anything other than to see the beaching of the now completely destroyed boat.
The bodies of the 59 victims have been transferred to the Crotone sports hall where the Minister of the Interior arrived yesterday afternoon Matteo Piantedosi immediately after the meeting in the Prefecture with the operational coordination of the relief efforts.
“Sorrow for the victims, including many children” was expressed by Pope francesco at yesterday’s Angelus
For the Head of State Sergio Mattarella “this tragedy must not leave us indifferent” and invited the European Union to govern the phenomenon of migrants. Condolences also from the premier Giorgia Meloni and from the entire political world.
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