According to Reuters, the ship departed from Turkey and was carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries. Initial reports say the bodies of dozens of migrants have been found on the coast of Stecado di Cutro, Crotone province, southern Italy.
The case has sparked a debate on migration in Europe and Italy, where recently elected tough laws from the new right-wing government on relief charities for migrants have been met with criticism from the United Nations and other organizations.
Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, told Reuters that 81 people survived the boat sinking. 20 of these people have been hospitalized, including one person receiving special care.
Home Secretary Matteo Piantedosi said 20-30 people may still be missing, in the context of information that the boat was carrying about 150-200 migrants.
The boat departed from the western Turkish port of Izmir about four days ago and was spotted by a plane from the European Union border agency Frontex about 74 km off the coast of Italy late on 25 February.
Police sent patrol boats to stop them, but the harsh weather forced them back to the port. The authorities have since mobilized units to search along the coast.
ANSA news agency reported that a baby just a few months old was among the bodies found washed ashore.
Emergency doctor Laura De Paoli recounted the discovery of another 7-year-old child that had died.
"When we arrived at the boat sinking site, we saw bodies floating everywhere and we saved two men holding a child. Unfortunately, the child died," Paoli told ANSA.
treatmented by emotion, Cutro's Mayor Antonio Ceraso told SkyTG24 news channel that he saw "an unwanted scene in life... a terrible scene... that would haunt him for life".
The debris of a wooden sailing boat - a Turkish ship - is scattered on a large stretch of coast. Police said that a survivor had been arrested for human trafficking.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed his deep sadness over the tragedy and condemned profitable traders for promising migrants "a haunting prospect of a safe journey".
The government is committed to preventing these actions and will continue to do so, Meloni said. We call for maximum cooperation from relevant countries".
Meloni's government said that charitable groups rescuing migrants are encouraging migrants to make dangerous sea journeys to Italy, and sometimes cooperate with human traffickers.
Charities strongly reject both allegations.
Stopping and obstructing the work of NGOs will only have one impact: vulnerable people are not helped, Spanish migration rescue organization Open Arms wrote on Twitter in response to the shipwreck.
The head of the Italian Catholic Church, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, called for a resumption of the EU's search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean as part of a "structural, sharing and humanitarian response" to the migration crisis.
Sharing the same view, the spokesperson of the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on Twitter to increase rescue activities in the Mediterranean.
On the same day, Pope Francis - the son of Italian migrants to Argentina and a long-time supporter of the rights of migrants - said he had prayed for the victims of the shipwreck.
Italy is one of the main destinations for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea. Many have gone to Italy to find a way to continue to richer Nordic countries. But to do so, they must be brave enough to overcome the most dangerous migration path in the world.
The United Nations Missing Migration Project has recorded more than 20,000 deaths and missing people in the central Mediterranean since 2014. It is estimated that more than 220 people have died or gone missing this year.
