ROME, March 9: about 70 would-be illegal immigrants were feared drowned on Friday night when a boat which capsized in the Mediterranean off Italy, while the country’s navy came under fire for allegedly failing to help.

Only 11 people are known to have survived from the estimated 80 people aboard the overcrowded boat, and most of them were picked up within minutes of it capsizing by an Italian fishing vessel that had taken it in tow in rough weather.

As Italian officials called off the search effort early on Saturday due to heavy winds, after 12 bodies had been retrieved, a prosecutor in Sicily said he was opening an inquiry into possible murder by the navy, which allegedly failed to help.

The boat capsized after it had been taken in tow by an Italian fishing vessel which had spotted it in difficulty in rough seas off southern Italy.

However, the first mate of the fishing boat, Francisco Giacolone, said that a radio appeal to the Italian navy failed to produce the required help, and that in particular a naval vessel sent to the scene refused a request to take the immigrants’ boat in tow.

Vito Deodato, captain of the fishing boat Elide, said he managed to take the boat in tow, and also sent an SOS to the navy.

“When we saw the immigrants’ boat in difficulty we radioed to the navy,” said Giacolone.

“They sent a helicopter over, and then they dispatched the naval vessel Cassiopea to the area. We asked them, by radio, to take the boat in tow because it would be safer that way,” he added.

Although he said the Cassiopea put itself upwind of the stricken boat to try and protect it from the gale, the entire crew of the fishing boat were unanimous on Saturday in blaming the navy for not doing more.

The crew of the fishing boat picked up nine of the 11 survivors plucked from the waves immediately after the boat capsized, as against only two rescued by the naval vessel.

The passengers’ screams and cries filled the air and the crew could see the doomed waving their arms in a call for help, the crew members said.—AFP