Italy boat tragedy gets murkier: Smugglers 'threw kids into sea' to lighten vessel's load

As the toll from Italy's boat wreck keeps on climbing, a horrible detail of the tragedy has come to the fore. The people smugglers responsible for the "voyage of death" threw kids into the sea to lighten the boat's weight, reports claimed. These claims have been made by survivors of the tragedy that took place on Sunday. The incident, as per Afghanistan's Taliban-led foreign ministry, has claimed the lives of 80 of the 170 passengers. 14 of the victims are reportedly children. However, as per the local Italian provincial government, the toll stands at 65. The number is expected to rise. The boat was smuggling migrants from Turkey to Italy at a hefty sum of €8,000 (£7,000) per passenger, as per Italian Police.

Watch |Italy Boat Tragedy: 63 bodies found, 36 still missing

Police have arrested three smugglers - a Turkish national and two Pakistani nationals, Reuters reported. Another Turkish suspect, as per an ITV report, is suspected to have died in the tragedy.

Survivors claim that as the boat began to sink near the coastal town of Crotone in Calabria, the smugglers began to throw migrants, including children, overboard into the sea to help lighten the vessel's weight.

Talking to Italy's La Stampa newspaper, one survivor said that the traffickers, "started to throw kids out, they grabbed them by the arm and threw them in the sea."

"According to initial investigations, they allegedly asked the migrants for about 8,000 euros ($8,485) each for the deadly journey," said the commander of a finance police team in the region of Calabria, Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Lippolis.

(With inputs from agencies)

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