Italy recovers 19 bodies from migrant boat, survivors taken to Lampedusa

Italy's coast guard recovered the bodies of 19 migrants and rescued 58 survivors from a boat that broke down while trying to cross to Europe from Libya,

rescue officials and migrant rescue charities said on Wednesday.



Some of the victims -- 18 men and one woman -- appear to have died of hypothermia, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the MSF humanitarian group said.



The survivors, including five children, were taken to the island of Lampedusa. A further three people who had been aboard the boat, were missing, a rescue official said, declining to be named.



German migrant rescue group Sea-Watch said the 19 deaths were part of a recent surge in fatalities at sea, estimating that at least 104 people had died in the Mediterranean over the past three days, including 18 people who drowned when their inflatable boat sank off western Turkey earlier on Wednesday.