Dozens of migrants are feared dead after an 11-year-old girl was found alive in the sea off Italy, a rescue group said.

More than 40 migrants are feared dead off the Italian island of Lampedusa after a lone 11-year-old survivor said the boat she was on capsized, a rescue group said Wednesday.

He added, “We assume that she is the only survivor of the shipwreck and that the other 44 people drowned.” said Compass Collectivewhich assists in migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

The group’s ship Trutamar 3 heard the “girl’s calls in the dark” on Wednesday morning around 2:20 a.m. (0120 GMT) while heading to another emergency.

“The 11-year-old girl, originally from Sierra Leone, had been floating on the water for three days with two life jackets made of tire tubes filled with air and a simple life jacket,” the group said in a statement. Compass Collective was also released the pictures From tire tubes and rescuers treat the girl.

Mauro Marino, the doctor who examined her, told the daily newspaper Repubblica that he believed the girl had been at sea for 12 hours.

The girl told rescuers that the metal boat left from Sfax, Tunisia. She said the boat sank within seconds as strong gusts hit with 11-foot waves, and that she – and two others – were together in the water for a while but then lost contact. BBC reported.

“The girl had no drinking water or food and was suffering from hypothermia, but she was engaged and oriented,” Compass Collective said.

A spokeswoman for another charity, Mediterranean Hope, told AFP that the girl was recovering in hospital after being rescued.

Spokeswoman Marta Bernardini said the group’s representatives found the girl “extremely tired.”

Italian news agency ANSA reported that coast guard and police boats searched the area on Wednesday where the sunken boat was found.

“They have not yet found the bodies or traces of clothing,” Ansa news agency wrote.

According to International Organization for MigrationMore than 30,000 migrants have died or are still missing trying to cross the Mediterranean since numbers began being kept 10 years ago. the BBC reports Italy bore the brunt, receiving more than 63,000 this year alone, according to data issued by the United Nations.

last year, At least 64 peopleMigrants, including eight children, died when their overcrowded wooden boat hit shallow waters a few hundred meters off the Italian coast of Calabria and collapsed early in rough seas.