ROME—The bodies of at least 34 migrants, many of them young children, were recovered from the sea off Libya after some 200 migrants tumbled into rough waters when their overcrowded smugglers’ boat capsized Wednesday, the Italian coast guard said. Co-founder of humanitarian rescue group MOAS, Chris Catrambone, said on Twitter that many corpses had been brought on board their ship, and that toddlers were among the dead seen in the water. "The immediate intervention of the coast guard boat Fiorillo and the MOAS boat Phoenix permitted the rescue of the majority of the migrants who had fallen into the water," the Italian coast guard said in a statement Wednesday evening.
The Italian Coast Guard reports that at least 20 migrants are killed when their 500-passenger boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya's coast. About 1,700 people have been rescued in 15 operations since Tuesday.