Migrants, in Crotone a ship explodes during the rescue. Four dead and two missing

First the fire, then the roar, the screams, the terrified migrants jumping into the water to escape the flames. For reasons yet to be clarified, around noon an explosion destroyed the migrant boat, which landed this morning in Sellia Marina, which the Guardia di Finanza was towing towards the port of Crotone. There are currently four dead and two missing, five injured who have suffered more or less severe burns.

Among the injured, the three migrants who were closest to the point of the explosion were in very serious condition and were immediately taken to hospital. Two were urgently hospitalized in Crotone, while a third required immediate helicopter transport to Catanzaro hospital. Two financiers, who were on board the ship at the time of the explosion, were also injured. Overwhelmed by the shock wave, one of them would have ended up in the sea breaking his leg, and rescued by migrants who jumped into the water to escape the flames, the other instead suffered serious burns.

At the moment it is impossible to establish the causes of the accident. According to the initial reconstructions, while the transshipment operations were taking place, a fire would have occurred on the ship, immediately followed by an explosion probably caused by the fuel on board. And panic broke out. Terrified, the migrants jumped into the water, while the wounded, unable to move, called for help from the deck of the ship.

“A chilling scene” reported the bathers, who witnessed the accident from the shore. The ship was located off the coast of Praialongo, near Isola di Capo Rizzuto, but fortunately not far from the port of Le Castella and the patrol boats of the Hacienda and the Coast Guard that immediately came to the rescue. The wounded and shipwrecked were escorted to the nearby port of Le Castella, where a first aid post was immediately activated and numerous ambulances arrived at the docks to accompany the injured to hospital.

Between last night and this morning, with several landings, almost eighty people landed in Calabria, between the coasts of Catanzaro, those of Locride and those of the Crotone area. During the night, some 40 migrants (including 5 minors), of Iraqi and Iranian nationality, landed on Favaco beach aboard a small boat. However, with the first light of dawn, 36 people arrived in the town of Ruggero, in Sellia Marina. Of these, 13 were on board an inflatable boat and 23 on board the sailboat, which was later devastated by the explosion during transport operations to Crotone.