Seventeen Tunisians on migrant boat towards Italy missing

TUNIS - At least seventeen Tunisians who were on a migrant boat heading towards the Italian coast are missing, a Tunisian national guard official said on Monday.

The missing people, including a five-year-old child, had set sail on a fishing boat from Bizerte in northern Tunisia last week, the national guard official, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told Reuters.

Coast guard and Navy forces, supported by helicopter, have begun operations search operations, the official said.