A crowded boat filled with migrants capsized in wind-whipped seas near a tiny Mediterranean island on Saturday, sending them tumbling into the water, said the Italian coast guard, which pulled 149 of them to safety. There were fears at least two people or perhaps many more were missing.The coast guard said the rescue, before sunset, involving four of its motorboats and two of its specialised rescue divers, took place about 1 nautical mile from the beach of Isola di Conigli, an uninhabited islet a few dozen meters from Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily.It said those rescued, who included three children and 13 women, were brought to the port of Lampedusa, a vacation and fishing island.
Rescue efforts were launched after a private citizen signalled that a 10-metre-long (33-foot) boat was foundering about a mile from Lampedusa, the coast guard said, adding the distressed vessel had neither requested help nor signalled its position to the coast guard.The coast guard said no bodies were spotted at sea during the rescue.Risking their lives, migrants set out in unseaworthy boats launched by Libya-based human traffickers.SOS Mediterranee said that earlier in the week, 90 of those aboard had been rescued from a foundering dinghy after being adrift for two days in the waters north of Libya.The interior ministry said Malta, Germany, France and Italy had requested that the European Commission activate procedures to find countries willing to take the migrants. The ministry gave no indication how long that process might take, or when the Ocean Viking could disembark in Sicily.
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