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Migrant ship adrift off Italy coast, caught in gales Italian coastguard reaches stricken migrant ship
(35 minutes later)
Coastguards are trying to reach a small boat packed with around 100 migrants adrift off the coast of southern Italy. The coastguard have reached a small boat packed with migrants adrift off the coast of southern Italy.
Large waves and gales are preventing nearby merchant ships from approaching the vessel. They say around 120 Syrian migrants were picked up from the vessel, which had encountered rough seas.
The boat was spotted on Sunday after a satellite phone call from an Egyptian national on board, AFP reports. Large waves and gales meant that for 24 hours, coastguard and naval craft had only been able to shadow the vessel.
In October, hundreds of migrants drowned in two shipwrecks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.In October, hundreds of migrants drowned in two shipwrecks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
"We are waiting for a break in the weather to operate safely," coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. The boat was spotted on Sunday after a satellite phone call from an Egyptian national on board, AFP reports.
Mr Marini said women and children were among those on board the 20-metre (65ft) boat. The protracted operation was carried out in waters south of the province of Calabria.
Two rescue speed boats were eventually able to move in and pick up the exhausted passengers - many women and children among them.
They were then transferred to a larger coastguard vessel which was to take them to the Italian mainland.
Those on board the boat were following a route that brings thousands of African and Arab migrants fleeing war and poverty to what they hope will be better lives in Europe.
But they often attempt the journey in dangerous and unseaworthy boats, and hundreds of people died in two disastrous incidents in October.