People ask for help after their boat overturned off the Libyan coast Thursday, May 26, 2016. A migrant boat sank off Libya’s coast Thursday with about 100 passengers on board. Officials said 88 people had been rescued and that some 20 bodies were spotted in the sea. AP
ROME, Italy — A 24-year-old from the Ivory Coast who survived a shipwreck in the Mediterranean has drowned in a lake in northern Italy, Italian media said Saturday.
Lesine Sanune was living at a hotel-turned-migrant-center near Turin after making it alive to Italy despite the rickety vessel he was on overturning during the crossing to Europe.
READ: Striking pictures capture moment of migrant shipwreck off Libya
According to witnesses, he dived into the cold waters of the Lake Sirio in Chaiverano for a swim immediately after eating and never returned to the surface, La Stampa daily said.
His body was recovered over two hours later by divers with the fire service.
“It’s absurd. He escaped the sea and died in this way. I’m lost for words,” said Silvana Perrone, head of the Isola di Ariel association which runs the migrant center.