Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
At least 41 migrants have died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, after a small boat which had set off from Sfax in Tunisia capsized and sank in the Strait of Sicily.
Four people who survived the shipwreck told rescuers that they were on a boat that had set off from Sfax in Tunisia and sank on its way to Italy.
The survivors, three men and a woman, said that they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.
This group of four survivors from the Ivory Coast and Guinea reached Lampedusa on Wednesday.
The surviving migrants told the Red Cross that they were wearing life jackets that helped them crawl on the remnants of another shipwrecked boat.
According to the survivors, the 7m (20ft) long boat, left Sfax on Thursday last week, but sank within hours after being hit by a big wave.
According to eye witnesses only about 15 people are said to have been wearing life vests on the capsized boat.
The survivors were rescued by a private vessel and then transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel.
The Italian coast guard reported two shipwrecks in the area on Sunday, but it is not clear whether this vessel is one of those.
More than 1,800 people have lost their lives so far this year in the crossing from North Africa to Europe.
