Irish Navy rescues 367 people from wooden barge in choppy waters

Irish Navy vessel LE Eithne has rescued 367 people from a wooden barge in the Mediterranean.

The crew on the Irish Navy vessel LE Eithne located the men, women and children in choppy waters around 31 miles (50km) north-west of Tripoli in Libya, and all of them were safely taken off.

This morning’s rescue operation took nearly three hours.

A Navy spokesman said the 278 men, 80 women and nine children were undergoing medical screening on the LE Eithne and being given food and water.

The vessel and crew were dispatched by the Irish Government in mid-May to assist Italian authorities in the humanitarian search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.