libya shipwreck toll 117, dozens missing

Rescuers have retrieved from the sea the bodies of 117 migrants whose boat sank off the coat of libya, the Red Crescent said on Saturday in a new toll.

A spokesman for the libyan relief organisation said dozens are still missing after Thursday’s tragedy. “So far 117 bodies have been retrieved from the sea while dozens of people are still missing,” the spokesman Mohammad al-Misrati told AFP. He said the boat carried 400 would-be migrants, and that 198 had been rescued.

On Friday Misrati said that 76 bodies had been retrieved after the boat sunk near the western libyan port of Zuwara.Red Crescent teams wearing protective white clothing and masks on Friday collected bodies that had washed ashore, placing them in orange plastic bags and carrying them to ambulances.