ROME // Up to 700 refugees are thought to have drowned in three deadly shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, the UN's refugee agency said on Sunday.
Survivors said that in one incident, a woman was decapitated after a rope joining two boats together was deliberately cut by a suspected people trafficker.
"The situation is chaotic, we cannot be sure of the numbers, but we fear up to 700 people may have drowned in three shipwrecks" in three days, one of which is believed to have killed over 500 people, said UNHCR spokesman Federico Fossi.
About 500 refugees were declared missing after the fishing boat they were on capsized on Thursday morning off Libya. Survivors said at least 40 were children, including newborn babies.
Some 100 others were missing after a boat sank on Wednesday, while 45 bodies were recovered from a wreck that went down on Friday, with more feared lost.
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"We'll never know the exact number, we'll never know their identity, but survivors tell that over 500 human beings died" in Thursday's shipwreck, said UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami.
Brought to safety at the Italian ports of Taranto and Pozzallo, survivors gave accounts of what happened on Thursday to the UNHCR and Save the Children.
Giovanna Di Benedetto, Save the Children's spokesperson in Sicily, said it was impossible to verify the numbers involved but that survivors had spoken of around 1,100 people setting out from Sabratha in Libya on Wednesday in two fishing boats and a dinghy.
"The first boat, carrying some 500 people, was reportedly towing the second, which was carrying another 500. But the second boat began to sink. Some people tried to swim to the first boat, others held onto the rope linking the vessels," she said.
According to the survivors, the first boat's Sudanese captain cut the rope, which snapped back and decapitated a woman.
The second boat quickly sank, taking those packed tightly into the hold down with it.
The Sudanese captain was arrested on his arrival in Pozzallo along with three other suspected people traffickers, Italian media reports said.
* Agence France-Presse
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