Nearly 60 people are dead after a wooden boat crowded with migrants broke apart off the coast of Italy, as officials fear the death toll will rise.
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A wooden boat crowded with migrants smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn Sunday off the Italian coast, authorities said. Rescuers recovered nearly 60 bodies, and dozens more people were missing in the rough waters.
Officials feared the death toll could top 100 because some survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers when it set out from Turkey, U.N. refugee and migration agencies said.
At least 80 people were found alive, including some who reached the shore after the shipwreck just off Calabria's coastline along the Ionian Sea, the Italian Coast Guard said. One of the agency's motorboats rescued two men suffering from hypothermia and recovered the body of a boy.
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