The fishing boat Nuevo Joaquina Antonio has rescued thirteen shipwrecked people -among them a woman, a child and a baby- who were floating in the water after capsizing last night 45 miles southwest of Alicante the boat in which they intended to reach the coast Spanish. The Helimer helicopter mobilized, after receiving the warning from the fishing boat, has rescued and transferred another person to land.
Maritime Rescue reports that, according to statements by those rescued, there would be two deaths and one missing person. At the time of writing these lines, the search was continuing with the Sasemar 305 plane and a Civil Guard patrol boat.
As sources from the Red Cross and Maritime Rescue have explained to EFE, the shipwrecked were rescued while floating on the high seas about 40 miles from Torrevieja, after the boat they were traveling in capsized on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the migrants’ account, the boat capsized around 5:30 p.m. yesterday, and they have been able to survive thanks to the life jackets that the thirteen survivors had.
They state that two people died, apparently before the boat capsized, and a third was missing, making it 17 people who left Tipasa, an Algerian town near Algiers.
As for the survivors, the Red Cross has highlighted that the fourteen individuals are “weak”, although there is no fear for the lives of any of them.
However, a woman with second-degree burns on her buttocks, her seven-year-old daughter and a two-month-old baby -also the son of the woman with burns- have been transferred to the Alicante General Hospital due to their injuries.
From the Red Cross they have maintained that despite the fact that the boat had capsized, they have been able to cut the gasoline drum to put the two-month-old baby on it, who could have survived in this way and with the help of the crew, who have shaded the baby so that the body temperature would not increase.
This is the fifth vessel whose crew members have been rescued by Maritime Rescue since last Saturday. Between Saturday and Sunday two boats with a total of 28 migrants, including two babies aged 4 and 18 months, arrived in the waters of La Vilajoiosa and Xàbia (Alicante); yesterday a third with 13 men was rescued off the coast of Altea and today another with 14 people had been rescued 50 miles from the coast.
