MIGRANT SHIPWRECKS OFF ITALY LEAVE ELEVEN DEAD-Eleven people died and more than 60 were missing, including 26 children

Bodies of eleven migrants recovered by the German aid group RESQSHIP were brought to Lampedusa on Monday evening (June 17).

Earlier on Monday aid groups, coastguard officials and U.N. agencies said eleven people died and more than 60 were missing, including 26 children, following two migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s southern shores.

German aid group RESQSHIP, which operates the Nadir rescue boat, said it picked up 51 people from a sinking wooden boat, including two who were unconscious, and found 10 bodies trapped in the lower deck of the vessel.

Survivors were handed over to the Italian coastguard and taken ashore on Monday morning, while the Nadir made its way to the Italian island of Lampedusa, towing the wooden boat with the deceased, the charity said.

The second shipwreck took place about 200 km (125 miles) east of the Italian region of Calabria, as a boat that had set off from Turkey caught fire and overturned, the agencies said.

They said 64 people were missing at sea, while 11 were rescued and taken ashore by the Italian coastguard, along with the body of a woman.