ROME—Two minors were found dead Friday on a migrant boat carrying nearly 40 people in the Mediterranean Sea and a search was under way for a woman reported missing from the vessel, Italy’s coast guard said.
A coast guard statement said 36 people were found alive on the boat, which had been reportedly disabled by an explosion, in waters off Malta. It was not immediately clear how the minors had died or what the passengers’ nationalities were.
Italian state TV said the migrants, including many from sub-Saharan Africa, had sailed from the Tunisian port of Sfax.
The coast guard statement said a Tunisian fishing boat informed the coast guard earlier Friday that the migrants were in difficulty within Malta’s search-and-rescue zone….