Italian rescuers save over 100 migrants, find 2 bodies

ROME: The Italian Coast Guard rescued more than 100 migrants and recovered two bodies after a sailboat ran aground near a jetty in southern Italy.
A pair of rescue divers had to coax one survivor, who was clinging to a metal pylon jutting up from the water, to jump into the sea so they could bring him to safety. He was taken by motorboat to Siderno, a town on the west coast of Calabria, the region that forms the “toe” of the Italian boot-shaped peninsula. One diver shouted, “Jump, jump!” and “Bravo!” to try to boost the man’s courage. Eventually, he leaned down to grab a diver’s outstretched hand.
In all, 108 migrants had been aboard the double-masted sailboat, which had beached and overturned on a sandy shore adjacent to the jetty, the coast guard said. Sailboats and yachts usually carry far fewer migrants than traffickers’ unseaworthy fishing boats, which often attempt to sail from Libya to the Italian island of Sicily. – AP