Italy, NATO vessels search for missing migrants off Mediterranean island
ROME - Italian and NATO rescue crews are searching the waters off a small Mediterranean island for passengers of a migrant boat that ran into trouble as it neared Italy amid reports that dozens of people may be missing.
Cmdr. Filippo Marini of the Italian coast guard said 54 people had been accounted for by early Friday, all Tunisian and in good health.
The ANSA news agency said they were rescued from the sea as well as on the uninhabited islet of Lampione west of the island of Lampedusa. ANSA said the original call for help received by port officials in Palermo, Sicily, spoke of more than 100 people on board.
Port officials told Italian state radio Friday that initial SOS reports are frequently inflated, but that the search was nevertheless continuing.
