Italian police on Monday arrested a Gambian people trafficking suspect over the death of a migrant who perished in the Strait of Sicily shielding her two children aboard an inflatable dinghy, local reports said.
The Gambian was held in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo after a rescue ship docked there with 299 migrants and the body of the 30-year-old Malian woman on board, the daily Il Giornale di Sicilia said on its website.
The woman was crushed to death in the dinghy's packed stern after the boat broke in two, according to numerous eye-witnesses.
The woman's nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son survived the crossing and are being cared for by nuns in the nearby city of Ragusa.
Police are trying to locate the children's uncle who is believed to have been living in Italy for several years.
Several thousand migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean and at least eleven corpses recovered since Friday as the crossings continue unabated amid worsening weather.
It has been the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean with more than 4,200 having perished trying to reach southern Europe.
One in forty people have died on the dangerous sea voyage from Libya to Italy this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
