A small boat packed with migrants adrift off the coast of southern Italy was rescued by the Coastguard on Monday.
About 120 Syrian migrants were picked up from the vessel, which had encountered rough seas.
Large waves and strong winds meant coastguard and naval craft were only able to shadow it for 24 hours.
AFP reports the boat was spotted on Sunday after a satellite phone call from an Egyptian national on board.
Two rescue speedboats were eventually able to move in and pick up the exhausted passengers south of the province of Calabria.
They were then transferred to a larger coastguard vessel to take them to the mainland.
The BBC reports more than 400 people drowned in two separate incidents off the Italian coast in October. Many were from Eritrea and Somalia.
