21 die as boat sinks off Albania

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 12, 2004

21 die as boat sinks off Albania

A speedboat transporting Albanians trying to get to Italy has sunk, killing 21, officials said Saturday.

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A speedboat transporting Albanians trying to get to Italy has sunk, killing 21, officials said Saturday.

Three women and 18 men were killed in the shipwreck, said Lt. Col. Antonio Passaro, a spokesman for NATO in Albania. Eleven people survived and handed over to Albanian authorities.

Police arrested two survivors on charges of organizing the trip.

Albanian police monitoring the sea with radar on Friday evening noticed a boat trying to cross rough seas to Italy from the Karaburun peninsula near Vlora, 140 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of Tirana, police spokesman Floriani Serjani said.

Albanian authorities immediately asked Italy and NATO for help in assisting the boat, as no available Albanian ships were able to handle with the waves.

The boat was found at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) Saturday, Passaro said.

In Rome, Ferdinando Lolli of the Italian Coast Guard general command's press office told The Associated Press that no one was believed to be missing.

"The dinghy was full of water, and all these people aboard and the bad weather caused this accident," Lolli said.

Speedboats are a popular mode of transport for Albanians trying to sneak into Western Europe to get away from their country's poverty.

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