ROME, Oct 22: Italian authorities detained over 400 illegal migrants who landed on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Sunday, aided by calm seas in the Mediterranean, officials said.

In the larger group, an 18-meter boat crammed with 403 people was intercepted by two Italian coastal patrol boats about 8 kilometres south of Lampedusa, said Daniele Battaglia, of the port authority in Palermo, the Sicilian capital.

The group had set out from the Libyan coast and included 21 women, one of whom is pregnant, and a 10-month-old baby, Battaglia said.

Hours later, a second boat containing 36 people safely arrived on the island, which is closer to Africa than to mainland Italy.—AP