SICILY, ITALY, JUNE 16, 2001: A search team has found what is thought to be the wreck of a ship which sank off the Italian coast five years ago with hundreds of illegal immigrants on board, including many Hindus. About 280 people, mainly from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, are believed to have drowned when the ship went down in waters off Sicily in December 1996. Investigations by the Italian and Greek authorities at the time failed to find any trace of the alleged disaster. Survivors told police at the time that they had been forced to board the doomed ship from a larger vessel.
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