An 11-year-old girl was rescued after clinging to a car inner tube for three days amid stormy weather in the Mediterranean.
Rescuers from the NGO Compass Collective said they were on their way to another emergency when they heard her screams for help.
The unnamed girl from Sierra Leone told them she had set off with 44 others from Sfax in Tunisia. Their boat sank and all other migrants were presumed dead.
Thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe die on the dangerous journey in the Mediterranean each year.
Compass Collective spokeswoman Katja Tempel told the BBC that rescuers on board the Trotamar III found the young Sierra Leonean migrant wearing a simple life jacket and two tire tubes around her waist at around 3:20 a.m. (02:20 GMT) on Wednesday.
The girl told them that the metal boat she was on sank within seconds when a strong storm with 3.5 meter high waves hit and she – and two others – were in the water together for a while but then lost contact. .
Rescuers handed her over to Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa, where she was able to walk and talk.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 30,955 migrants have died – or remain missing – crossing the Mediterranean since the organization began recording figures 10 years ago.
According to data published by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, Italy has borne the brunt of the burden, hosting more than 63,000 people this year alone.
However, this number has decreased partly due to the tough policies of the right-wing government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
