Rome - Five illegal immigrants, including a young girl, died and 16 were missing after trying to sail two dinghies to southern Italy from Albania in very rough seas, Italian coastguards said yesterday.
A spokesman for the navy rescue co-ordination centre said coastguards had found the craft 15 km north of the south-eastern port of Brindisi with nine people alive on board. The survivors said they had set sail from the Albanian port of Durres on Wednesday.
