250 people, including women and children, were missing on Wednesday after their boat capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa

250 people, including women and children, were missing on Wednesday after their boat capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in the worst shipwreck since scores of immigrants began traveling to Italy following the unrest in North Africa.

Italian Police and Coast Guard officers carried an injured refugee onto the Italian island of Lampedusa after a boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsized on Wednesday.
The vessel, which capsized in the pre-dawn dark, had been carrying immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including at least one pregnant woman. The capsized vessel was among the first to try to reach Lampedusa from Libya since fighting began there last month. About 22,000 immigrants have arrived on the island since January, most f them from Tunisia.

The shipwreck was an alarming sign of the challenges facing Italy as it contends with a wave of immigrants leaving North Africa. Aid officials called on Wednesday for a swifter response in boat rescues and better coordination between Mediterranean countries in distinguishing between “economic immigrants” seeking work in Europe and refugees seeking asylum.

After interviewing survivors on Lampedusa, Italian officials and the International Organization for Migration estimated that more than 250 people were missing.

By Wednesday afternoon, an Italian patrol boat and a fishing boat had rescued 51 people and brought them to Lampedusa, but coast guard officials feared many more were still at sea, as rough weather hampered rescue efforts.

“We are still looking for at the least 150 people in the sea, but we fear there could be even more than that,” said Cmdr. Valerio Alessandro, a spokesman for the Italian port authorities. He later revised that number to 250, and said that about 20 bodies had been seen in the water.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the boat left Libya carrying migrants and asylum seekers from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Chad and Sudan. The group said that an estimated 40 women and five children were on board, and that only two women had survived.

Early Wednesday morning, an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat reached the stricken vessel after those aboard had sought help from the Maltese maritime authorities with a satellite phone, Commander Alessandro said.