The number of people killed in a migrant boat shipwreck near Italy has risen to 62, with fears it could exceed 100.
The boat, thought to be carrying up to 200 people including children, broke apart while trying to land near Crotone in southern Italy on Sunday.
At least 62 people are confirmed to have died in the tragedy, and 80 were rescued, leaving dozens still unaccounted for. The confirmed victims include 12 children, authorities said earlier.
The wooden sailing boat carrying migrants to Europe had sailed from Turkey and crashed early on Sunday against rocks. The vessel was carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries.
Based on accounts from survivors, Italian authorities believe between 180 to 200 people had been on board the boat.
Photographs showed the beach at Steccato di Cutro littered with the splintered remains of the ship as well as the belongings the migrants had brought with them, including a toddler's tiny pink trainer and a yellow plastic pencil case decorated with pandas.
Firefighters have confirmed three more bodies had been recovered Monday morning, but held out little hope for finding survivors.
“I think no, because the sea conditions are too difficult,” provincial fire commander Roberto Fasano told the AP news agency. “But we can never abandon this hope.”
Firefighter Inspector Giuseppe Larosa said what had particularly horrified the first rescue crews who arrived on the scene was how many children had been killed.
“It was a chilling scene. Bodies spread out on the beach, so many bodies, so many children,” he said on Monday morning.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that more than two dozen Pakistanis were believed to have been among those who drowned.
Charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), operating on the ground, said they were assisting several people who had lost relatives in the shipwreck.
“We have cases of children who became orphans, such as a 12-year-old Afghan boy who lost his entire family, a family of nine people, including four siblings, parents and other close relatives,” said charity worker Sergio Di Dato.
Italy is one of the main landing points for the migrants trying to enter Europe by sea.
The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year, it estimates.
