STECCATO, Italy – The coffins of 65 victims of a devastating migrant shipwreck off Italy’s southern coast were laid out on Tuesday in a local sports hall, five of them small and white, containing the bodies of the youngest children that died.

Flower bouquets adorned each coffin in the building in Crotone city, and a blue toy car had been laid on one of the smallest, ready for mourners to pay their respects.

Earlier, the coffins had been opened to allow the identification of the dead, with relatives having flown in from different countries, including Germany and Austria.

One woman let out a scream which shattered the silence of the sports hall.

A German-speaking man told reporters he was the nephew of an Afghan man who survived – but lost his wife and three children aged five, eight and 12, after paying US$30,000 (S$40,400) for the family to cross. A 14-year-old child survived.

The toll from Sunday’s shipwreck rose to 65 on Tuesday after another body was found, local officials reported.

Fourteen children were among those confirmed to have died when their overcrowded boat shattered in a storm, the Interior Ministry said.

Another 79 survived, while several more are believed to still be missing.

It was one of the most tragic incidents in the central Mediterranean, which tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers traverse each year, hoping to find a new life in Europe.

“We go to this beach in summer. All residents will remember this, that there were so many victims, especially these children and young people,” said Ms Daniela Brugnana, 45, who came to pay homage to the victims.

Three men – two Pakistanis and a Turkish national – have been detained for alleged human smuggling over the incident, a police spokesman told AFP.

Afghans, Pakistanis on board

Bodies, shoes and debris have been washing up along the shoreline for the past three days.

Divers are still searching for potentially up to 20 missing people, although it is not yet clear how many passengers were on the boat.

Charities working with survivors believe there may have been up to 200 people on board, from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.

The overcrowded wooden boat, called Summer Love, set off last Thursday from Izmir in Turkey, survivors told Red Cross charity workers.

Many of those on board were seated below deck and had difficulty breathing, they reportedly said.

Survivors said they had paid smugglers between €5,000 (S$7,100) and €8,000, according to the Corriere della Sera daily.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry expressed its “great sadness” for those killed.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan prays for forgiveness for the martyrs and patience for the families and relatives of the victims, urging all citizens once again to avoid going to foreign countries through irregular migration,” it said.

Few metres from the coast

Amid questions about whether more could have been done to prevent the tragedy, both Italy’s coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex revealed they had tried to help.

Frontex said one of its planes had spotted a “heavily overcrowded boat” heading towards Italy late on Saturday, and had informed the Italian authorities.

“There were no signs of distress,” it said, adding that the plane monitored the ship until it had to turn back to refuel.

It said Italy dispatched two patrol boats to intercept the vessel, but they were forced by bad weather to return to port.

Italy’s coast guard, for its part, said Frontex had seen the boat “with only one person visible”, and a financial-crime police vessel had tried to intercept it.

At 4.30am on Sunday (0330 GMT), reports had come in suggesting that the boat was in danger just “a few minutes from the coast”, and a rescue mission was launched. AFP