Dramatic video footage emerged on Tuesday showing dozens of migrants on a sinking rubber boat, among them women and children, who were desperately jumping off the boat and trying to climb up ropes and ladder from a cargo ship that was there to help them.
The video was taken by a crew member of the Zeran cargo vessel, which rescued two boats with migrants during the weekend.
Up to the moment, five bodies were recovered and brought ashore. Also, reports are giving information for survivors, who were transferred on Tuesday to the port Catania, Sicily (Italy). It was mentioned that most probably there were many other drowned migrants.
The video footage shows people jumping off their deflating boat to catch life preservers tossed into the water by the Zeran’s crew. Other men empty jerry cans of gasoline to use them as floats.
Representative of Save the Children said survivors had reported for "dozens" victims in the rescue operations on Sunday in the seawaters between Sicily and Libya.
According to Giovanna di Benedetto, member of the aid group Save the Children, the exact number of migrants was not known. The survivors, in their first interviews with aid groups, reported for several people, who fell into the sea and couldn't swim.