SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A submarine in Lebanon discovered the remains of at least 10 migrants after their boat sank earlier this year near the country’s coast with about 30 people on board according to the Lebanese navy on Friday.
Dozens of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinian migrants tried to reach Italy by sea but their boat went down more than 5 kilometers from Lebanon’s port of Tripoli, after they were encountered by the Lebanese navy.
On Friday night, ten bodies were recovered, including one of a child, According to navy estimates, 30 people were believed to have gone down with the boat.
Local officials reported that the wreck of the boat was found on Wednesday, at a depth of some 450 meters (about 1,470 feet).
The sinking status remained disputed to this day. Survivors say their vessel was hit by the Lebanese navy, while the military claims the migrants’ boat collided with a navy vessel while trying to get away.
Captain Scott Waters, who operated the craft, told reporters at a press conference in Tripoli on Friday that the discovered bodies have been decayed since the sinking, and they were found outside of the wreck.
“Some of them tried to escape the boat but it appears they got tangled in the debris.” Waters said.
“One of the very last footage and images we took,” he added, was of the remains of a person, an arm around another. “They died holding each other.”
All the video footage from Waters’ crew will be handed over to the judiciary as it investigates the sinking, according to Lebanon’s navy chief, Col. Haitham Dinnawi.
