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ROME (AP) — The Italian navy says it is has begun deep-sea operations to recover bodies from a migrant shipwreck that killed as many as 800 people.
Premier Matteo Renzi has pledged that Italy would do all possible to try to bring up the bodies. Survivor accounts and undersea examination indicate hundreds were crammed inside the hold of the smuggler's fishing boat, which capsized when rescuers aboard a nearby container ship approached in waters off Libya on April 18.
The wreck lies on the seabed some 370 meters (some 1,220 feet) below the water's surface. The navy said Monday it will use a minesweeper, underwater robots, a research ship and a support ship.
Italian prosecutors have blamed the shipwreck on overcrowding and botched steering by one of the two smugglers, who survived.
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