ABC News

Boat wreck kills 58 migrants off Italian coast

A least 58 migrants were killed and more than 81 were rescued Sunday when the human smuggling boat they were aboard slammed into the rocks off the coast of southern Italy and “disintegrated” just feet from the shoreline, officials said. Up to 150 migrants reportedly from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria — countries ravaged recently by poverty, natural disasters, conflicts and civil unrest — were crammed aboard the 66-foot-long wooden boat when it crashed into a rocky shore of eastern Calabria, which forms the tip of Italy’s boot shape, according to the Italian Coast Guard. At least 20 migrants were hospitalized, one in need of intensive care, said Manuela Curra, a provincial government official.