Italian coastguard says nine migrants dead after boat capsizes off Lampedusa

In this image taken from a video released by the Italian Coast Guard, a boat with migrants is approached by a rescue operation off the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea (Guardia Costiera/AP)

The Italian coast guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies after a smugglers’ boat capsized in a storm about 30 miles south of the island of Lampedusa, authorities said.

Survivors indicated that the steel-bottom boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia, overnight on Sunday carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and the Ivory Coast.