41 Migrants Dead After Mediterranean Wave Capsizes Their Boat

Forty-one people – including three children – died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, leaving only four survivors, according to local reports Wednesday.

The boatload of migrants hoping to reach Italy set off on Aug. 3 from the Tunisian city of Sfax, about 80 miles from Lampedusa, but their vessel capsized in a large wave six hours into the journey, the survivors told Italian officials. 

They were rescued by a Maltese cargo ship and later transferred to the Italian coast guard. The survivors were three men and a woman from Ivory Coast and Guinea,” Deutsche Welle reported. 

The survivors said about 15 members of the group appeared to be wearing life vests, but they drowned anyway. 

An estimated 1,800 people have died this year trying to cross from North Africa to Europe.

On Sunday, the Italian coast guard said at least 30 people were missing from two shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean. It is unclear if the boat with 45 migrants was one of those wrecks.