LAMPEDUSA, Italy (AP) — Italian coast guard divers have plunged into the sea off the island of Lampedusa in hopes of finding more bodies from inside the wreckage of a smuggling ship that sank with some 500 people aboard.
The official death toll remained at 194 Monday, but more bodies were feared trapped inside the hold of the 18-meter (59-foot) ship, which now lies on the ocean floor 47 meters (154 feet) below the surface.
Coast guard Capt. Filippo Marini said bodies so far have been recovered from outside the ship and from its bridge. He said “now we have to get inside the hold.”
Only 155 people survived Thursday’s sinking, one of the worst such migrant disasters in the Mediterranean.
Source: The Associated Press
