This is an entry from: LIVE BLOG: Refugee crisis in Europe
Libya coastguard rescues over 100 migrants
3 September 2015 15:08 BST
AFP:
Libya's coastguards said they rescued more than 100 African migrants on an overloaded rubber dinghy bound for Europe that was about to sink off the coast of Tripoli on Thursday.
"We rescued 104 African migrants, including 14 women. Most of them were from Sierra Leone and Nigeria," Lieutenant Mohamad Dandi of the Tripoli coastguard told AFP.
He said the rescue operation took place shortly after midnight at a distance of seven nautical miles off Garabulli, 50 kilometres east of the Libyan capital.
The migrants were on a Zodiac built to carry up to 35 people and the boat was about to start sinking because of a puncture when the coastguards intervened, he said.
The migrants were seen disembarking at a naval station in Tripoli.