Rescuers search for missing in migrant boat sinking

Rescuers searched Friday for missing would-be migrants after plucking 54 people from the sea after their boat sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa overnight, rescue services said. The Italian coastguards along with customs police and NATO ships were taking part in the search, the ANSA news agency reported. Some survivors said there had been about 100 people on board, apparently Tunisians, but the exact number of missing was not yet known. The fishing boat carrying the migrants sent out a distress signal by satellite phone late Thursday night. It sank about 12 nautical miles off Lampedusa, the Italian island closest to the coast of north Africa. The first people were pulled from the sea around 0030 GMT, while some managed to swim to a small islet. Each year thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Africa, cross the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and makeshift boats to land in Lampedusa seeking to enter Europe.