Second 'ghost ship' rescued off Italy's coast with no crew

ROME, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- For the second time in one week, a ship carrying hundreds of migrants but no crew has been rescued off the coast of Italy.

The incident began late Thursday when the Ezadeen, a cargo vessel sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, issued a distress call.

"We're without crew, we're heading toward the Italian coast and we have no one to steer," a migrant aboard the ship radioed to the Italian coast guard.

An Icelandic coast guard ship conducting surveillance for Frontex, the European Union border management agency, was in nearby waters at the time and responded to the distress call.

Italian and Icelandic coast guard members boarded the Ezadeen late Thursday, where they found 400 to 450 migrants, believed to be Syrian.

As of Friday, Icelandic coast guard vessel Tyr was towing the migrant ship to the port of Crotone.

A similar incident occurred on Wednesday when the Italian navy rescued nearly 1,000 migrants stranded on the Blue Sky cargo ship.

The crew apparently abandoned the ship, leaving the controls on auto-pilot and aimed at the Italian coast. Italy's Coast Guard was able to disable the engines and dock the ship at the port of Gallipoli.