Footage from Italy's fire service shows divers reaching the wreckage, at a depth of 47 metres
Rough
seas have forced divers to postpone their search for more than 200
migrants still unaccounted for after their boat sank off southern Italy.
Rescuers have so far found 111 bodies, and 155 people have
been pulled alive from the seas 1km (half a mile) from the island of
Lampedusa.
Dramatic video footage shows the boat lying upright on the seabed some 150ft (45m) below the surface.
Divers have described seeing horrific scenes inside the wreckage.
Continue reading the main story
The arguments have begun over how to stop this tragic loss of life.
An estimated 25,000 have lost their lives in the past 20 years.
Some officials are saying that if you close borders then you
give more power to the traffickers. Others point out that there are 26
million out of work in the EU and that Europe is reluctant to
accommodate more migrants.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that there
needed to be "more channels for safe and orderly migration". It might
help but it remains likely that thousands will still try and migrate to
Europe.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem vowed to "fight smugglers exploiting human despair".
None of this is easy but officials are saying that the migrants have become a "European tragedy".
Corpses are crammed into the
wreck and some of the bodies - even in death - seeming to cling to the
sides of the hull, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports.
So many bodies have been brought ashore that the island has
had to send for more coffins and turn a hangar at the airport into a
huge, makeshift mortuary.
Italians are aghast at the scale of the tragedy, Italy's worst ever migrant shipwreck, our correspondent says.
A day of mourning has been declared, with flags flying at half-mast and a minute of silence observed in all Italian schools.
A special mass is being held on Friday evening in the church in Lampedusa.
Pope Francis, visiting Assisi, described Friday as "a day of
tears" for the victims and condemned a "savage world" that ignores the
plight of "people who have to flee poverty and hunger".
He has said he wants to use abandoned Catholic monasteries and convents to house refugees.
Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini - who wept at the scene of so
many bodies - said: "After these deaths, we are expecting something to
change. Things cannot stay the same."
"The future of Lampedusa is directly linked to policies on immigration and asylum," she told reporters.
Key migrant routes to southern Europe
Continue reading the main story
Illegal migration numbers
- Since 1988, at least 19,142 people died trying to reach Europe's borders - 2,352 in 2011 alone
- 6,707 have died off Sicily in the past 10 years
- In 2012 Italy examined 27,000 asylum claims - 24% of applicants got international protection
- 272,208 asylum claims in whole EU in 2012, of which 25% were in Germany
- 30,100 irregular migrants reached Italy by sea in Jan-Oct 2013 - about half were from Syria and Eritrea
Sources: UNHCR, Frontex, Fortress Europe
"This is not an Italian tragedy,
this is a European tragedy," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has said.
"Lampedusa has to be considered the frontier of Europe, not the
frontier of Italy."
'Continuous horror'
Italian coastguard ships, fishing boats and helicopters have
been taking part in the rescue and recovery operation off an area of
Lampedusa called Rabbit Island.
The search has been widened beyond the initial radius of four
nautical miles in an effort to recover bodies that have been swept away
by tides.
But the worsening weather conditions have put the operation on hold, the BBC's Gavin Hewitt reports from Lampedusa.
Gavin Hewitt in Lampedusa says that at least 200 migrants are still unaccounted for
Mr Alfano said the divers had seen dozens of bodies in the
wreck. "There could be even more in the hold, where the poorest of the
poor are usually put," he told parliament.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Africa may be seeing sustained economic growth, but few of the profits appear to be trickling down to the poorest”
Half of the bodies so far recovered are said to be women and four are children.
The skipper of the boat, a 35-year-old Tunisian, was
arrested, Mr Alfano announced on a visit to Lampedusa on Thursday. "He
had been deported from Italy in April," he said.
The 66ft (20m) ship was carrying around 500 migrants - mostly
from Eritrea and Somalia - when it set sail from the Libyan port of
Misrata, survivors said.
The boat began taking on water when its motor stopped working as it neared Lampedusa early on Thursday morning, they said.
Some of those on board then reportedly set fire to a piece of
material to try to attract the attention of passing ships, only to have
the fire spread to the rest of the boat.
The boat is thought to have capsized when everyone moved to one side.
This image released by the Italian coastguard shows some of the migrants who survived the shipwreck.
Most of those who were making the crossing from Libya to Italy were from Eritrea and Somalia.
So many bodies have been recovered, a hangar at Lampedusa's airport has had to be turned into a temporary mortuary.
Black ribbons in memory of those who died
were tied to banners during a mass by Pope Francis in front of St
Francis Basilica in Assisi.
Footage from Lampedusa showed bodies being laid out on the dockside.
Mayor Nicolini has described the scene as a "continuous
horror", while a local doctor said the hardest part to deal with was
seeing the bodies of children.
An Eritrean woman who had initially been placed among the
bodies on the shore was later found to be breathing and was taken to
hospital in Sicily.
Continue reading the main story
Why people flee Eritrea and Somalia
Eritrea:
- UN says 3,000 people try to flee each month
- Human rights groups say the country is becoming a giant jail, with some 10,000 political prisoners
- Young people conscripted to army - sometimes until age of 40
Somalia:
- Much of the country controlled by al-Shabab Islamist militants
- Country ravaged by two decades of war
In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres commended the swift action taken by the Italian coast guard to save lives.
Mr Guterres also expressed "dismay at the rising global
phenomenon of migrants and people fleeing conflict or persecution and
perishing at sea".
The UN said that in recent months most migrants attempting
the crossing were fleeing the conflicts in Syria and the Horn of Africa,
rather than coming from sub-Saharan Africa.
The number of those arriving by sea to Italy this year until 30 September stood at 30,100, according to the UN.
The main nationalities of those arriving were Syrian (7,500), Eritrean (7,500) and Somali (3,000).
