146 migrants feared dead after shipwreck in Mediterranean, says lone survivor

A rubber boat packed with 147 migrants sank in the Mediterranean and all but one of its passengers drowned, the sole survivor - a 16-year-old Gambian boy - told rescuers, the International Migration Organization (IOM) said on Wednesday. A Spanish frigate, the Canarias, found the boy hanging onto a piece of debris in the sea on Tuesday. He was transferred to an Italian Coast Guard ship and brought to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa early on Wednesday.
“He was very tired when they found him. He’s resting now, so we’ll have more details later,” said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo in Rome, after speaking to staff in Lampedusa.
“The boy said they left Sabratha, Libya, a couple days ago on a rubber boat with 147 sub-Saharan Africans on board, including five children and some pregnant women,” Di Giacomo said.
In the past two days, rescuers have picked up more than 1,100 migrants at sea, and recovered one body, Italy’s Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard did not comment on the latest shipwreck.