An 11-year-old girl has been found clinging to tire tubes off the Italian coast after the migrant boat she was on sank three days earlier.

The girl from Sierra Leone was the sole survivor of a shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa island, rescuers said. Dozens of migrants likely died when their boat sank in a storm.

An 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone was the only person rescued after a migrant boat believed to have 45 people on board sank.

Rescue yacht saves child, believed to be from Sierra Leone, who was on boat carrying 45 people in Mediterranean

An 11-year-old girl was rescued overnight after three days at sea as the sole survivor of a shipwreck off Italy ’s Lampedusa island, a rescue charity said on Wednesday. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

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.