41 people reportedly died after boat capsized off Italian coast, survivors tell Red Cross

ABC News:

Forty-one people are presumed to have died in a shipwreck close to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday, survivors told the deputy general secretary of the Red Cross.

Four migrants told the Red Cross that on Thursday they left Sfax, Tunisia and were shipwrecked the next day during poor weather conditions. The surviving migrants said they had to use life preservers made from inner tubes to stay alive.

The survivors were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard and brought to Lampedusa, the southernmost island of Italy, on Wednesday.

There were 45 people, including three children onboard, the survivors said, according to the Red Cross’s Deputy General Secretary Ignazio Schintu.

When the boat sank everyone was together and then were separated, the remaining survivors said, according to the Red Cross.