Captain of Sunk Lampedusa Boat Arrested

World | October 8, 2013, Tuesday // 17:18|  views

Rescue teams recover bodies off the coast of Lampedusa. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The Prosecution in Agrigento, Italy, has pressed official charges against the captain of the boat carrying African migrants which sank off the coast of Lampedusa on Thursday.

The boat carrying migrants from Somalia and Eritrea capsized about 1 km off the Mediterranean coast of Lampedusa, leaving 232 persons dead.

Khaled ben Salam, a 35-year old national of Tunisia, has been arrested as the suspected captain of the boat, Italian media sources report. He allegedly set fire to a T-shirt to signal distress to coast guards, sparking panic on board.

Lampedusa, not far from Sicily and the closest Italian island to Africa, has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter European Union countries.

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Tags: Lampedusa, boat, migrants, Somalia, Eritrea, Italy, prosecution

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