Friday will be a national day of mourning in Italy, after at least 130 people died when a boat carrying African asylum seekers caught fire, capsized and sank just a few hundred meters off the Italian island of Lampedusa.  It’s believed to be one of the worst such disasters in the Mediterranean.

“The survivors are in a state of shock,” said Giusi Nicolini, the mayor of Lampedusa, which is one of the main entry points into the European Union for asylum-seekers crossing from Africa or the eastern Mediterranean.  500 people were believed to be on board.  150 immigrants were rescued but hundreds are unaccounted for.

The disaster is believed to have happened like this:  One of the boat’s engines stopped working, and it started taking on water.  Someone on board set fire to some piece of material to attract attention of passing ships, but started a larger fire.  People ran to the other side of the boat, causing it to capsize.

Most of those on board were from Eritrea and Somalia, and it is apparent that few it any knew how to swim.