At least 11 dead and more than 60 missing after migrant shipwrecks off the coast of Italy

At eleven people are dead and more than 60 are missing- including 26 children following two migrant shipwrecks of the coast of southern Italy, according to coastguard officials, UN agencies and aid group, as reported by Reuters.

The German aid group RESQSHIP said it picked up 51 people form a sinking wooden boat and found 10 bodies in the lower deck. 

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, the International Organization for Migration and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a joint statement the boat had embarked from Libya laded with migrants from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The second shipwreck took place about 200 km east of the Italian region of Calabria, as a boat that had set off from Turkey caught fire and overturned, the agencies said.

They said 64 people were missing at sea, while 11 were rescued and taken ashore by the Italian coastguard, along with the body of a woman.

A survivor reportedly told MSF the missing included at least 26 children, some only a few months old.