Italy investigates migrant boat disaster, with 41 feared dead. Four survivors tell a harrowing tale

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Prosecutors in Sicily are investigating the latest in a string of disasters that have left scores of migrants missing in the Mediterranean Sea after they set out in flimsy smugglers’ boats from Tunisia. Four young migrants, rescued by a passing merchant ship, have told doctors and police on a tiny Italian island that waves swamped their boat on Aug. 4. After staying afloat for hours by clinging to air tubes, they spotted an empty vessel, struggled to reach it and climbed aboard. The iron-hulled vessel had no engine. State TV, reporting from Lampedusa Island, said the survivors found drinking water and a half-package of crackers in the boat. Some 41 others are missing and feared dead, the survivors told officials.