Girl, 11, rescued in Med after three days clinging to tyre tubes

An 11-year-old girl has been rescued after clinging to inner tubes for three days in stormy weather in the Mediterranean.

Rescuers from non-governmental organisation Compass Collective said they were on their way to another emergency when they heard her calls for help.

The unnamed girl, from Sierra Leone, told them she had set off with another 44 people from Sfax in Tunisia. Their boat had sunk and all the other migrants were presumed dead.

Thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe die during the treacherous journey in the Mediterranean every year.

Compass Collective spokeswoman Katja Tempel told the BBC that rescuers on board the Trotamar III vessel had found the young Sierra Leonean migrant wearing a simple life jacket and two tyre inner tubes around her waist at around 03:20 (02:20 GMT) on Wednesday.

The girl told them that the metal boat she had been on had sunk within seconds as strong storms with 3.5m-high (11.5ft) waves hit and that she - and two others - were together in the water for a while but then lost contact.

Rescuers handed her over to Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa, where she was able to walk as well as talk.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 30,955 migrants have died - or remain missing - crossing the Mediterranean since it started recording figures 10 years ago.

Italy has borne the brunt, receiving more than 63,000 this year alone, according to data released by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

The numbers have dropped, however, partly due to the hard-line policies of the right-wing Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.