
Migrants arrive at Palermo’s harbor, Italy, after being rescued at sea, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Photo credit: AP/Alessandro Fucarini)
Migrants arrive at Palermo’s harbor, Italy, after being rescued at sea, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Photo credit: AP/Alessandro Fucarini)
An Italian navy motorboat approaches a boat of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Photograph: AP
Etna is an active volcano and eruptions are frequent but the latest activity, which began on Saturday, is the most intense in months Photo: AFP/Getty Images
ROME (AP) — Italian coast guard officials say a boat carrying about 100 migrants ran aground on a sandbar off Sicily, and six of them died when they tried to swim to shore.
The boat became stranded early Saturday, 15 meters (50 feet) off a beach popular with tourists and locals in Catania.
It is rare for smugglers’ often unseaworthy vessels filled with migrants to aim for shores near cities, and Coast Guard Capt. Roberto D’Arrico said the boat apparently made a navigational error while trying to reach secluded shores undetected.
Authorities were trying to identify the survivors, some of whom swam to safety and others who were rescued by the coast guard. Italian news reports said they included Egyptians and Syrians.
Stunned vacationers stared at the six body bags on the beach.
Gas and ash stream from multiple craters on Sicily’s Mount Etna in this natural-color satellite image. Dark lava, ash, cinders, and scoria (dense volcanic rock filled with gas bubbles) coat the southeastern slopes. The image was collected by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on March 23, 2013.
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