8 Oct 2013

More bodies brought up from migrant ship

11:08 pm on 8 October 2013

Italian divers have recovered dozens more bodies from a ship carrying African migrants that sank last Friday.

The vessel caught fire and capsized close to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.

Thirty-eight bodies have now been freed from the hull, which divers were previously unable to access, the BBC reports.

A navy officer said divers had unpacked a wall of people, with the corpses so entwined that they were difficult to pull out.

It brings the official death toll to 232.

There were 155 survivors of the sinking, which happened about 1km offshore.