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Five refugees drown after boat capsizes off Libya coast

The vessel was spotted in a 'precarious condition' by Italian Navy ship Bettica

Wednesday 25 May 2016 15:43 BST

Photographs of the incident show the blue fishing boat rocking precariously before capsizing (Italian Navy)

At least five people have died and hundreds have been rescued after a wooden fishing boat carrying refugees capsized off the coast of Libya.

Some 550 people, including women and children, were rescued by Navy swimmers, the Italian navy said on Wednesday.

Photographs of the incident show the blue fishing boat rocking precariously before capsizing and sending the refugees into the sea.

(Italian Navy ) (Marina Militare)

(Italian Navy) (Marina Militare)

Some of the passengers were pictured climbing onto the hull of the overturned vessel, while other swam for safety to life boats or towards the navy ship.

Navy swimmers are also shown pulling migrants in lifebelts toward the Bettica. No details of the migrants' nationalities have been given.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

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A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016.

AFP/Getty Images

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016.

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.

Getty Images

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year

Refugee crisis - in pictures

The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos

Reuters

Refugee crisis - in pictures

An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos

EPA

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija

AP

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea

EPA

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

Getty Images

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Reports by Associated Press suggest seven bodies may have been recovered.

The vessel was spotted in a "precarious condition" by Navy ship Bettica while on patrol in the southern Mediterranean.

"Shortly afterwards the boat overturned due to overcrowding. The Bettica, which had arrived nearby, threw life-rafts and jackets to the migrants in the water," the Navy said in a statement.

Several motor boats are being used in the rescue operations which are still underway, and the navy frigate Bergamini has deployed a helicopter.

(Italian Navy) (Marina Militare)

Boat arrivals rose sharply this week in conjunction with warmer weather and calm seas. Italy's coastguard said 5,600 migrants were rescued on Monday and Tuesday, and officials fear numbers will increase as conditions improve.

In the past two years, more than 320,000 boat migrants have arrived on Italian shores and an estimated 7,000 died in the Mediterranean as they sought to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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