Over 70 migrants feared killed on crossing to Europe

More than 70 people were feared to have died in the sea south of Malta in one of the worst disasters involving clandestine migrants in the Mediterranean.

Reports of the tragedy emerged the day after similar calamity off Spain, and brought to 100 the number believed to have perished in the Mediterranean this week. The deaths came amid a steep increase in the number of landings on Europe’s southern shores. Police on Malta said eight survivors from a half-sunken dinghy had told them that the boat on which they were trying to reach Europe had set off from Libya with 79 people aboard. They said the migrants had told a horrific tale of hunger and sudden death.