By Jonathan Bucks and Abul Taher for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 02:00 GMT, 20 January 2019 | Updated: 19:50 GMT, 20 January 2019
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More than 100 migrants including a pregnant woman and a two-month-old baby were feared dead last night after their flimsy inflatable rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean.
According to three survivors who were rescued 40 miles off the Libyan coast, 120 migrants in total had set off from the village of Garabulli, near Tripoli, on Thursday night.
The survivors, who were flown by an Italian naval helicopter to the island of Lampedusa, 100 miles south-west of Malta, said their dinghy took on water just hours after leaving Libya en route to Italy.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said last night: ‘They told us there were 120 when they left. After ten to 11 hours at sea (the boat) started sinking and people started drowning.
More than 100 migrants were feared dead last night after their flimsy inflatable rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean
‘Ten women including a pregnant girl were aboard and two children, one of whom was only two months old.’
He added that a third of the migrants on board were Sudanese and the others came from West African countries.
An Italian military plane first spotted the sinking dinghy as it struggled in rough waters, and threw two safety rafts
