Italian Officials Say 750-800 Died in Deadliest Known Migrant Wreck

Only 28 people survived the deadly shipwreck last year

Italian officials have put the death toll in the April 2015 migrant shipwreck at between 750 and 800 people, following autopsies on the remains retrieved from inside the vessel.

That figure is in line with survivor estimates of between 700 and 800 victims. Only 28 people survived the April 18, 2015, shipwreck, the deadliest known migrant tragedy.

Government official Vittorio Piscitelli said Tuesday that a more precise number can be known only after further examination of the remains, "to substitute the numbers with names." Many remains were badly decomposed by the time the wreck was raised from the seabed earlier this year.

Two-thirds of the dead were between the ages of 20 and 30 and one-third were adolescents. There was one child, a 7-year-old boy. Most were from sub-Saharan African nations.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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