Italian Coast Guard lowered onto abandoned 'ghost ship'

Coastguards manage to take control of a cargo ship carrying hundreds of migrants abandoned by smugglers, after landing on it by helicopter

By Telegraph video, and AP, video source APTN-02 Jan 2015

A ship carrying hundreds of migrants has been abandoned by its crew in rough seas in the Mediterranean off Italy's south coast in the second such incident in three days, the Italian coastguard said on Friday.

The cargo ship had been drifting powerless in rough seas about 40 nautical miles from Italy's southern coast with as many as 450 people on-board.

Three coastguards managed to take control of the vessel, the Sierra Leone-flagged Ezadeen, after landing on it by helicopter, a statement said.

Children and pregnant women were among the migrants, most of who were believed to be Syrian. The cargo ship apparently set sail from Turkey, he said.

A Coast Guard ship was towing the vessel to Italy, the exact port of the Ezadeen's arrival will depend on sea conditions, authorities aid.

Earlier on Friday, a migrant had called for help saying: "we're without crew, we're heading toward the Italian coast and we have no one to steer."

_{An Italian Coast Guard is lowered onto the abandoned Ezadeen}

The Ezadeen is the second cargo ship full of migrants to be abandoned while still sailing this week. Days earlier, the Italian Coast Guard in a daring attempt, lowered officials onto another, Moldovan-flagged cargo vessel so they could take control of the ship, which was only a few miles from crashing into the Italian coast.

More than 170,000 migrants were intercepted or needed rescue by Italian navy, coast guard and air force patrols last year. This apparently new technique by smugglers of abandoning a ship after setting it on a crash course complicates rescue efforts, Marini told Italian state radio, "but the important thing is there are lives to be saved."