Over 100 dead

ITALIAN emergency services were still hoping to find more bodies yesterday during their search for victims from the worst Mediterranean shipwreck tragedy to date.

The disaster occurred on Thursday when a ship carrying asylum-seekers from Africa sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Emergency services on the remote island said they had recovered 111 bodies so far and rescued 155 survivors from a boat with an estimated 450 to 500people on board. Rescuers said strong currents around the island might have swept other bodies further out to sea.

Islanders in the tiny fishing community held mass and a silent torch-lit procession, as flags across Italy flew at half mast on Friday and schools marked a minute of silence.

Pope Francis said in Rome that it was "a day of tears" in a "savage world" that ignored refugees.

The Italian government asked Europe to help stem the influx of migrants, as the country mourned the dead. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Lampedusa had become "the new Checkpoint Charlie between the northern and southern hemispheres", referring to the crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.