VIDEO: Irish navy ship rescues 201 migrants in Med

A baby, several women, and children were among 201 migrants crammed into five flimsy inflatable vessels who were rescued by Naval Service flagship LÉ Eithne 60km north of Libya.

Navy sources said the weather had been poor in the Mediterranean for several days and it came as no surprise when it lifted yesterday that migrants tried to make a run for the Italian coast.

The navy ship had been lying off Lampedusa island — where hundreds of migrants have drowned in recent years trying to gain access to Southern Europe — when it responded to a report that the inflatables had been spotted 60km off the coast of north Libya.