"The survivors had been on the boat with the bodies of these women for hours on end. An MSF ship patrolling the central Mediterranean came to the rescue of two dinghies that were sailing close together and managed to pull 209 people, including 50 children, to safety. It is tragic," said Jens Pagotto, MSF Head of Mission for Search and Rescue Operations. The Italian coastguard received a distress call at about 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) and notified the MSF ship MV Aquarius, which took three hours to reach the scene. The bodies of 21 women and one man were found on a rubber dinghy adrift near the Libyan coast on Wednesday, just hours after they had set sail for Italy, humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

Source: dna July 21, 2016 05:48 UTC