At least 58 migrants drown and dozens rescued as boat broke apart in seas off southern Italy coast

Twelve children, including a newborn baby, are among at least 59 people to have been killed after a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Europe sank in the rough seas off the coast of southern Italy.

The wooden boat allegedly ran into trouble at dawn in the Ionian Sea on Sunday near the southern coast of Italy's mainland with around 150 migrants onboard, authorities reported.

The provisional death toll currently stands at 59, but is expected to rise, Italian junior interior minister Wanda Ferro says. 

Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, earlier said 81 people had survived the shipwreck, with 20 hospitalised, including one person in intensive care following a huge rescue operation by Italian coast guards and firefighters near the coastal town of Crotone in the Calabria region. 

Among migrants first found washed up on the beach was a baby a few months old, according to ANSA news agency.

The wooden boat allegedly ran into trouble at dawn in the Ionian Sea on Sunday near the southern coast of Italy's mainland with 100 migrants onboard

The Italian coast guard and firefighters have recovered more than 40 bodies after the accident near the coastal town of Crotone

'When we got to the point of the shipwreck we saw corpses floating everywhere and we rescued two men who were holding up a child', emergency doctor Laura De Paoli told ANSA, adding that the seven-year-old boy was dead.

His voice cracking with emotion, Cutro's mayor Antonio Ceraso told the SkyTG24 news channel that he had seen 'a spectacle that you would never want to see in your life. A gruesome sight that stays with you for all your life.'

As emergency services searched the sea and the coastline in stormy weather, Curra said that survivors had said some 140 to 150 were on board - suggesting that some people were missing.

A video captured by Italian coastguards shows the devastating wreckage in the pitch dark night as the rough waves crash onto the shore.

A large amounts of debris is seen as the wrecked migrant boat lies on the edge of the shore - wood and other materials are scattered across the sand.

Guards searched the boat thoroughly using a torch in the early hours of the morning. 

In another clip, two coastguard service boats are filmed searching the rough waves during the daytime for endangered migrants following the disaster. 

The vessel, carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, sank in rough sea conditions near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, the region that forms the tip of Italy's boot.

It had set sail from Izmir in western Turkey about four days ago and was spotted about 74 km (46 miles) off the coast late on Saturday by a plane operated by European Union border agency Frontex, Italian police said.

Patrol boats were mobilised to intercept it, but severe weather forced them to return to port, police said, adding that authorities then mobilised search units along the coastline.

A member of the cynophile police and his dog patrol the beach after debris was washed ashore following the incident

Divers of the Italian Coast Guards, rescuers from the Firefighters Corps. and police officers gather at an Adavanced command Post set near the beach of Steccato di Cutro

Coastguard service boats were filmed searching the rough waves during the daytime for endangered migrants following the disaster

Italian firefighters and Red Cross personnel gather at the scene where bodies of migrants washed ashore

Firefighters, including rescue divers, had recovered multiple bodies, including three pulled by a strong current far away from the wreckage.

'It's an enormous tragedy,' Crotone Mayor Vincenzo Voce told RAI state TV.

'In solidarity, the city will find places in the cemetery' for the dead, Voce said.

Details about the nationalities of the migrants were not immediately provided in the reports.

It was not immediately clear where the boat had set out from, but migrant vessels arriving in Calabria usually depart from Turkish or Egyptian shores. 

Many of these boats, including sailboats, often reach remote stretches of Italy's long southern coastline unaided by the coast guard or humanitarian rescue vessels.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the post-Fascist Brothers of Italy party, won power in October, partly on a promise to stem the flow of migrants reaching Italian shores.

Pictured: A group of people assisted by emergency services at the beach

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was 'criminal to put a boat of barely 20 metres (66 feet) to sea with 200 people onboard and a bad weather forecast

Expressing 'deep pain' over the latest deaths, Meloni said it was 'criminal to put a boat of barely 20 metres (66 feet) to sea with 200 people onboard and a bad weather forecast'.

'The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them, this type of tragedy,' she added in a statement, adding it demanded the 'greatest' collaboration of states from where migrants set off and originate.

The latest such tragedy comes just days after the government pushed through parliament a controversial new law on rescuing would-be migrants.

The new law forces migrant aid vessels to make just one rescue attempt at a time, which critics say risks increasing the number of drownings in the central Mediterranean.

The route is considered the most dangerous crossing in the world for people seeking asylum in Europe.

The route is considered the most dangerous crossing in the world for people seeking asylum in Europe

Most of those who were rescued were plucked from the waters by coast guards or the navy

A large proportion of people fleeing conflict and poverty, for what they hope will be a better life in Europe, cross from Africa via Italy.

According to the interior ministry, nearly 14,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, up from 5,200 over the same period last year and 4,200 in the first two months of 2021.

Charities rescuing people in difficulty at sea bring only a fraction of migrants ashore.

Most of those who are rescued are plucked from the dangerous waters by coast guards or the navy.

Despite this, the government in Rome accuses rescue charities of encouraging migrants to attempt the crossing and boosting the fortunes of human traffickers.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the latest disaster 'shows how absolutely necessary it is to staunchly combat illegal immigration'.

Centrist former economy minister Carlo Calenda reacted on Twitter: 'People in difficulty at sea should be rescued, whatever the cost, without penalising those trying to help them.'

Pope Francis offered his prayers and support for those impacted by the accident 

During this morning'ss Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, Pope Francis shared  a prayer for the victims of the boat crash.

He said: 'I pray for each of them, for the missing and for the other migrants who survived.

'May the Virgin Mary help these brothers and sisters.'

The Pope also thanked emergency services and volunteers who are offering migrants assistance and helping them in the aftermath of the wreckage.