Boats carrying more than 400 migrants have been intercepted off Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, overwhelming the tiny island south of Sicily, local authorities said. "In the past 48 hours, around 420 people have been intercepted near the island. On Saturday night alone 213 migrants were picked up from four different vessels and brought onto the island," Marcello Marzocca of the Palermo customs office told AFP Sunday.
Among the migrants were five children, several old people and a heavily pregnant woman who was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Sicily, he added.
"We have not yet determined their origin, but the fact that there were old people and a pregnant woman among them would suggest they came from a conflict zone," he added.
Lampedusa's transit centre can accomodate 190 people but it is frequently overwhelmed by mass arrivals. Transfers to centres in Sicily were being organised on Sunday.
Lampedusa, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Sicily, is the closest Italian territory to the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
In 2005, 207 vessels were intercepted off the coast of Italy with nearly 22,000 would-be immigrants on board. In the same year, coast guards and customs officers found the bodies of 70 migrants.
