Panic on Med Migrant Boat Pitched Hundreds to Their Deaths: IOM

Hundreds of people desperate to be rescued from a packed migrant boat in the Mediterranean pushed to one side when they saw a ship approach, capsizing the craft and pitching everyone into the sea where hundreds died, an official said on Wednesday. Survivors' accounts suggested at least 500 people were on the boat when it sank on Monday evening, some 75 miles off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Monday's incident would bring the total number of dead on migrant boats in the Mediterranean since January to around 900 amid a surge in would-be immigrants to Europe after the breakdown of order in Libya created fertile conditions for human traffickers.