At least four people have died and two more are missing after several migrants jumped into the water to avoid being rescued in the Algerian part of the Mediterranean, Italian authorities report.
The Coast Guard has given an account that late Saturday morning a small boat was detected in difficulty in the Algerian rescue zone and amid adverse weather conditions.
The Algerian authorities took over the coordination of the rescue and sent a merchant ship to assist the migrants, but the migrants, upon spotting the merchant ship, jumped into the water.
The area is 107 miles from the Algerian coast and 15 miles from the Italian rescue zone, so Algiers requested help from Rome, which sent naval and air rescue vehicles.
«At the moment, of the thirteen occupants of the boat, seven (six men and one woman) have been rescued on board the merchant ship ‘Christina B’, four bodies have been found lifeless in the sea and two people are missing,» the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The search has been complicated by bad weather and sea conditions, but will continue in the coming hours with patrol boats, helicopters and Coast Guard aircraft, an Air Force helicopter and Algerian aircraft, Italy said.
