Italian media and U.N. officials reported on Wednesday that seven people had been rescued, and 21 were still missing after a shipwreck of migrants off the coasts of Lampedusa and the Italian island.

Reports said that the survivors were Syrians who informed rescuers of the disappearance of three children.

The coast guard rescued the seven survivors and they said that 28 people were on board a boat which had left Libya just a few days earlier.

UNICEF's country coordinator for Italy Nicola Dell'Arciprete denounced the "another tragic vessel wreck off the coast of Lampedusa."

Most of the survivors claimed to have lost a family member. "We are on the ground with our operational team," he wrote in a post on X.

Central Mediterranean is the deadliest migration route in the world. The U.N. Migration Agency (IOM) reports that more than 2,500 migrants were killed or disappeared while trying to cross the central Mediterranean last year.

According to the latest figures released by the Italian interior ministry, just 43,000 migrants have reached Italy in 2024 - a significant drop from previous years.

(source: Reuters)