AT least 30 people are feared dead after three migrant boats were shipwrecked off the Italian coast.
The coastguard said the tragedy happened off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday, adding that 57 people had been rescued.
In a separate operation, 34 migrants were airlifted by helicopter from a cliff in Lampedusa on which they had been stranded since late Friday following another shipwreck, the Italian mountain rescue service said.
A child and two pregnant women were among them, it added.
Italy is experiencing a surge in sea migration, with almost 92,000 arrivals so far this year, according to interior ministry data as of Friday, compared with around 43,000 in the same period in 2022.