The bodies of 115 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by yesterday, three days after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe
Egyptian policemen and medics stand over a body of a migrant along the shore in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta. Pic/AFP
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Rosetta: The bodies of 115 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by yesterday, three days after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe.
Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Egypt's coastal Beheira province, provided the latest death toll and said that dozens more are still feared dead.
The migrants' boat capsized on Wednesday, nearly 12 kilometers from the Nile Delta port city of Rosetta. Many of the dead are women and children who were unable to swim away when the boat sank.
The head of the local council in the area, Ali Abdel-Sattar, said that the currents have carried the bodies of the victims many kilometers away from the site of the sinking.
He added that many of the migrants are believed to have been "stored in the bottom of the boat, in the fridge." He said the boat may now have sunk to 16 meters (yards) below sea level.
The UNHCR estimated that the boat was packed with some 450 people, while the state news agency MENA said earlier that the number might be as high as 600.
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