Nearly a thousand inhabitants of the Crotone area (Calabria, southern Italy) participated this Sunday in a Via Crucis in memory of the at least 70 victims of the shipwreck that occurred a week ago, which was headed by a cross made with the remains of the wooden barge that came ashore.
The ceremony on the Steccato di Cutro beach where the tragedy took place was attended by the Archbishop of Crotone, Monsignor Angelo Raffaele Panzetta, and the imam of the Cutro mosque, Mustafa Achik, since the majority of the victims were Afghans, Iranians , Pakistanis and Syrians, according to local media.
"We are here animated by hope and in a spirit of union with our Muslim brothers, in silence and in prayer, behind the cross," said the prelate.
Leading the procession, the cross was placed with the remains of the wooden barge in which the migrants had set sail from Turkey, some 180, according to the survivors, and which sank just 150 meters from the Calabrian coast, in a very rough sea. .
"We wanted to make this cross to remember the many innocent people who died in the shipwreck. This drama will never be erased from our minds," said Crotone parish priest Francesco Loprete, who commissioned the cross to be created by a local artist.
The discovery this Saturday of the lifeless bodies of two minors, one of them only three years old, places the official death toll at 70, although dozens of missing persons continue to be searched for and it is feared that the final number will exceed one hundred.
The Rescue Coordination Center centralizes the search work, "which will continue until the end", according to the Crotone Prefecture, and involves air, naval and diving units, together with ground personnel from the Coast Guard, Headquarters of Police, Carabineros, Finance Guard, Firefighters and the regional Civil Protection.
The shipwreck, investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, occurred at dawn last Sunday when the wooden barge in which some 180 migrants had set sail from Turkey, according to survivors, sank off the Calabrian coast.
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