The Italian coastguard rescues more than 340 migrants from the Mediterranean a year after another migrant boat sank with the loss of 366 lives. Paul Chapman reports
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Italian coastguard footage shows the rescue of more than 340 migrants from an unstable boat in the Mediterranean.
The migrants had travelled from North Africa in a wooden vessel and a rubber boat.
They were transferred to a rescue ship and taken ashore.
Their rescue on Friday is particularly poignant.
Divers had marked the first anniversary the same day exactly a year earlier when 366 mostly Eritrean men, women and children drowned as their burning fishing boat sank.
The tragedy happened less than a kilometre from the Italian shore.
The divers, who took a wreath out to the spot where the boat sank, placed a painting on the sea floor in memory of the victims.
The painting of two hands holding each other has on its back the signatures of the refugees who survived.
The boat was packed with about 500 migrants when it went down en route from Libya.
The sinking led Italy to launch a special search and rescue mission hoping to prevent further, similar tragedies.
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