11yo girl survived three days at sea after boat with 45 people sank off Italian island

An 11-year-old girl has been found floating in the Mediterranean Sea three days after a boat carrying 45 people sank during storms.

An 11-year-old girl has been rescued off the coast of Italy after three days at sea clinging to tyre tubes.

The child from Sierra Leone in West Africa said she was on a metal boat with 44 other people travelling from Sfax in Tunisia when the vessel sunk in the Mediterranean during storms.

Rescuers from Germany’s Compass Collective charity, which had been in the area assisting other people in distress at sea, believe she was the sole survivor and the 44 other migrants on the boat died.

An 11-year-old girl is thought to be the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of an Italian island. Picture: Compass Collective

The crew on the TROTAMAR III ship heard the girl’s calls for help in the dark at 3.20am.

“It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the child’s voice despite the engine running,” skipper Matthias Wiedenlübbert said in a statement.

“And of course we looked for other survivors. But after the storm that lasted for days with over 23 knots and 2.5 metre high waves, it was hopeless.”

The young girl, who was only quipped with a simple life jacket and two improvised life rings made from air-filled tyre tubes, had no food or drinking water.

Compass Collective said she was suffering from hypothermia but was still responsive and orientated despite three days at sea.

She survived three days at sea clinging to these tyre tubes. Picture: Compass Collective

She told them there were two other people in the water with her two days ago but they lost contact.

She was cared for on board and then taken to authorities on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is located between Malta and Tunisia.

Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, is both a tourist destination and a common stop for migrants on their way to Europe. However, thousands of migrants don’t make it and die trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean each year.

“Even in storms, people are forced to use risky escape routes across the Mediterranean,” Compass Collective spokeswoman Katja Tempel said.

“We need safe passages for refugees and an open Europe that welcomes people and gives them easy access to the asylum system. Drowning in the Mediterranean is not an option.”