Italian fishing boat rescues 103 migrants at sea

An Italian fishing trawler rescued 103 migrants including 21 women and one child on Sunday on a boat that was taking on water and brought them to the southern island of Lampedusa, the coast guard said.

The fishermen spotted the boat some 57 nautical miles (106 kilometres, 66 miles) south of Lampedusa -- a tiny outcrop that is closer to the shores of North Africa than to the Italian mainland -- and took the migrants on board.

Coast guard spokesman Filippo Marini told AFP the nationalities of the migrants or the country from which they set sail had not yet been determined.

"They have been taken to the migrant centre and are all in good health," the coast guard said in a statement, adding that two of the women were pregnant.

Tens of thousands of people arrived on rickety boats on Lampedusa last year, including migrants fleeing the post-revolutionary economic turmoil in Tunisia and African migrant workers fleeing the escalating conflict in Libya.

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