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Death toll from capsized migrant boat off Egypt rises to 177

by Reuters
Tuesday, 27 September 2016 12:36 GMT

CAIRO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Eight more bodies from the wreck of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants were recovered from Mediterranean waters off Egypt on Tuesday, ambulance sources said, taking the death toll to 177.

The boat capsized off Burg Rashed, a coastal village in the Nile Delta, on Sept. 21. Rescue workers and fishermen said they had rescued at least 169 people, but confusion remained over how many might still be unaccounted for.

The spokesman for the Beheira regional governor said the shipwreck had been hoisted out of the depths and was likely to contain dozens more bodies.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday it was still tracking the incident and believed that about 300 people in all were aboard the boat.

Egyptian security sources initially said there had been almost 600 migrants aboard. But a survivor whose comments appeared in an online video said the migrants had been told that about 200 people would be making the journey but traffickers had then added another 50, causing the boat to founder.

Officials said the boat was carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali migrants, and that they believed it was heading for Italy. Four members of the crew were arrested.

The IOM says that more than 3,200 migrants have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, while an estimated 298,474 have reached European shores. More than 1 million Middle Eastern, African and Asian migrants entered Europe in 2015.

(Reporting by Mohamed Abdellah in Cairo and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; writing by Asma Alsharif; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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