Video shows drowned couple in final embrace

Heartbreaking images have been released showing a drowned couple still in each other's embrace as divers search a shipwreck off an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea.

The 65ft vessel, carrying more than 300 African migrants, sunk off Lampedusa in September last year but divers were not able to access the wreck until October, the Telegraph reports.

It is believed the boat's cut out and the ship started taking on water.

Passengers started a fire to try and get attention from those on the shore but it spread and the ensuing chaos caused the ship to capsize.

Italian newspaper Repubblica was given access to video taken by police divers who surveyed the wreck, and published it on its website.

One haunting image shows a young couple still holding each other in the sunken hull.

It is believed up to 366 people died in the tragedy.

More than 36,000 migrants have made the often dangerous journey from North Africa to Italy in this year alone.

That figure is an 800 percent increase from the same period last year according to EU border agency Frontex.

Source: Repubblica, Telegraph

Author: Jack Hawke, Approving editor: Nicholas Pearson