German activist group ferries dozens of illegal immigrants to Italy

Three people drowned when the rubber boat carrying them and dozens of other illegal migrants got into difficulties on the central Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy, a German migrant activist group said on Sunday.

Illegal immigrant ferry service Resqship said the bodies of the three were found inside the boat, which was "dangerously overcrowded" and had been buffeted by waves of up to 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) before a vessel arrived at the scene.

65 people were rescued by the group's vessel Nadir. One person fell overboard earlier in the crossing and remains missing, Resqship added in a statement.

The Nadir intercepted the rubber boat, which had departed from Zuwara in Libya overnight on Friday, after being alerted by the hotline rescue operator Alarm Phone, the activist group said.

Italy's coastguard evacuated 14 people - medical cases and their relatives - on Saturday afternoon and took them to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, where the Nadir arrived later in the day with the remaining survivors.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Helen Popper)