A teenage girl who was run over by a migrant smuggler boat that crashed through a bathing area at “full speed” to land its human cargo on the beach is now out of intensive care nearly two weeks after she was almost killed, local media reports.
A speedboat carrying 14 male migrants from Algeria to the southern coast of Italy’s Sardinia was piloted straight through a designated swimming area and ran right over a 17-year-old holidaymaker enjoying a family trip on August 16th. As well as the impact of the boat hitting the girl as she swam, Italian media reports she also sustained injuries consistent with being hit by the propeller of the speedboat’s 85-horsepower outboard motor.
The injuries knocked the 17-year-old unconscious and had her boyfriend not been close at hand to pull her out of the water, it is stated she would likely have drowned. Regardless, it is reported she sustained serious injuries and was nearly killed, and the air ambulance had to land on the beach to rush her to the nearest hospital.
Now ten days later, reports L’Unione Sarda, the victim is recovering in hospital and is out of the intensive care unit for the first time.
The news the victim is on the path to recovery follows other recent updates in the shocking case which has caused outrage in Italy, including the emergence of new footage of the incident on social media that appears to corroborate eyewitness accounts and challenge the assumptions of police that the people smugglers trafficking the boat had been aware they’d struck a swimmer in the water. Footage cited by German newspaper Die Welt shows the victim vanish under the water after being hit.
After the migrant speed boat hit the victim, it then sped away “at high speed” to a nearby beach where the smugglers and their passengers disembarked and attempted to flee inland. Police were able to intercept and round up the full compliment, including the Algerian man suspected of being the smuggler, 28-year-old Hamed Elhoucine Alouache, who appeared before a judge last week.
Charged with facilitating illegal migration, based on investigator’s initial belief he hadn’t been aware he’d hit anyone in the water, at his court appearance on the 20th Alouache was only charged with aggravated assault. Yet the new footage now shows after it hit the girl the migrants slowed the boat, looked at the victim, then sped off, and both social media footage and eyewitness accounts state bathers waved their arms and shouted at the boat to warn them they were speeding into a designated swimming area, raising the question of whether additional charges will be laid including failing to stop and render assistance.
The teenage boy who saved the victim from drowning said of the incident: “It’s not true that they didn’t notice what happened… They saw us, stopped after the impact, looked at us, and then ran away”.
Sardinia has become something of a hotspot for migrant boat crossings, and locals have warned that smuggler boats have been piloted straight through crowded swimming waters several times this summer already, suggesting it was already only a matter of time before disaster struck. As far back as 2016, Breitbart News reported the loved holiday destination had emerged as a new migrant route from Algeria and that the island had been taken “hostage” by migrant arrivals.
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