An italian coastguard vessel made a gruesome discovery as the bodies of 25 alleged migrants found Monday in the hold of a boat trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to the small Italian island of Lampedusa.

The sea off Lampedusa has claimed further victims, as italian police officials informed they found the corpses — all young men — after boarding the overcrowded boat a few miles off Lampedusa island, which lies closer to North Africa than the Italian mainland.

The 25 alleged migrants found dead on board the boat were all male, most of them young. On board the boat were 271 people, among them 36 women and 21 children. The 15 metre-long boat had began its travel from Libya before it was spotted by a police helicopter and approached later by two office patrol boats. Chaos emerged on the migrant vessel, as it was accompanied to Lampedusa, the migrants were transported. The 25 bodies were discovered during the rescue operation.

Escape From Libya to Italy ended tragically

Rescue operations started in response to a mobile phone call from one of the passengers on the overcrowded boat. The caller requested assistance without, however, making any reference to the bodies. Italian rescuers subsequently found the victims in the hold, which is also the engine room. The rescued migrants said that the victims were the first to board the small vessel and moved into the lower parts through the only access, a hole barely 50 centimetres wide. The rest of the immigrants then followed them onto the deck. A few hours later, the gas from the elderly vessel’s engine must have made it impossible to breathe in the hold. The suffocating men are believed to have attempted to leave through the only hole but there was insufficient space on the upper deck for the other passengers.

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