Italy police: Migrants throw 12 overboard in religious row

Italian police said Thursday they had arrested 15 African migrants after witnesses said they had thrown 12 passengers overboard following a brawl between Muslims and Christians on a boat heading to Italy.

The victims were "of Christian faith, compared to their attackers who were of Muslim faith," police in the Sicilian city of Palermo said in a statement, saying the 15 people were arrested on suspicion of "multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate".

The incident aboard the rubber dinghy, which was carrying about 100 migrants, took place in the Strait of Sicily, between Tunisia and Italy.

According to a group of Nigerian and Ghanaian survivors, a fight broke out over religion, with a group of Muslim passengers threatening the Nigerians and Ghanaians after the latter -- who were in the minority -- declared themselves to be Christians.

"The threats then materialised and 12 people, all Nigerian and Ghanaian, are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean," the statement added.

The 15 migrants arrested over the attack on their arrival in Palermo were from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal.

In a separate migrant tragedy, as many as 41 migrants were feared drowned after refugee boat sank in the Mediterranean, Italian media reported.

Four survivors reported the incident to Italian police and humanitarian organisations.