Italy takes control of drifting crewless merchant ship

The Italian Coast Guard says it has managed to bring under control a drifting crewless merchant ship off the southwestern coast of Calabria.

The Italian Air Force on Friday sent a helicopter from an air base in southern Italy to help the vessel, Ezadeen, which had been abandoned by its crew with some 450 migrants on board.

The ship, which was sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, is now being towed to the southern Italian port city of Crotone.

The Italian Navy said six Coast Guard officers were lowered from the helicopter onto the deck of the Ezadeen to secure the ship as it floated some 40 kilometers off Crotone on Italy’s heel.

The Ezadeen had left the city of Famagusta on the eastern coast of Cyprus for the French port of Sete, the Navy added.

The Navy on Wednesday stopped another crewless ship off the coast of Italy. Italian coast guards rescued hundreds of migrants, including Syrian refugees, from the vessel. Many of the migrants on the Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M cargo ship were treated for hypothermia and broken limbs.