EUROPE-MIGRANTS/ITALY FUNERAL First funerals for migrants killed in April mass shipwreck

Record ID: 148191

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/ITALY FUNERAL First funerals for migrants killed in April mass shipwreck
  • Date: 7th July 2015
  • Summary: CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY (JULY 7, 2015) (REUTERS) INTER-FAITH FUNERAL CEREMONY IN PROGRESS WITH CATANIA MAYOR ADDRESSING MOURNERS COFFINS OF THIRTEEN MIGRANTS ON GROUND ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP ADDRESSING CEREMONY FLOWERS ON COFFINS ORTHODOX CHURCH REPRESENTATIVE SINGING VARIOUS OF TWO MEN IN PRAYER BY COFFINS MAN AND WOMAN STANDING BY COFFINS COFFINS ON GROUND IN COURTYARD VAR
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8JPXH3UQDL0COFPI4E7QECS0O
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Italy held a funeral service on Tuesday (July 7) for 13 migrants who died in the worst shipwreck in the Mediterranean in recent history, while the navy continued its search for other victims of the disaster.
    More than 700 people, most of them locked below deck, were believed to have drowned in April.
    Their overloaded fishing boat capsized after colliding with a ship that had come to their aid some 70 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.
    The Italian navy last week retrieved the first bodies from the wreck, which is lying at a depth of about 370 metres (1,200 feet), using remote-controlled vehicles and a submersible basket to haul up the remains.
    With the recovery mission still in full swing, simple wooden coffins carrying the bodies of 13 unidentified migrants were lined up in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Cultura in Catania, in eastern Sicily, for the inter-religious service.
    Local authorities and representatives of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches as well as Sicily's Islamic Community addressed the gathering.
    The bodies were later taken to Catania cemetery but were not immediately buried. The authorities are still deciding where all the victims should be interred.
    Tens of thousands of migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year in the hope of reaching Italy or Greece. An estimated 2,000 have drowned.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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