Funeral held for 24 drowned victims

A funeral ceremony has been held in Malta for 24 people who drowned after a migrant boat drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday.

BBC reports that at the burial were Maltese government officials and international representatives while the Bishop of Gozo, Monsignor Mario Grech, and Imam Mohammed El Sadi read extracts from the Bible and the Koran.

With no known families to return their remains to, the men will be buried in common graves in Malta's Addolorata Cemetery.

Over 800 people died in Sunday's disaster which Italian police say happened when the captain crashed the boat by mistake against a merchant rescue ship.

The number of deaths in such migrant drownings has now reached 1,750 so far this year.

Meanwhile, European Union (EU) leaders are holding an emergency summit later to find ways to stem the number of people risking their lives.