The Italian coastguard said that 1,725 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast on Thursday, bringing the total number saved since Sunday to at least 14,000.
There were rare scenes of joy in earthquake-hit Amatrice on Monday, when a fortunate cat was rescued from the ruins of a collapsed home and returned to its tearful owner.
Some 1,800 migrants were rescued from waters off Libya on Monday, lifting the total picked up to 8,300 over five days, according
to the Italian coastguard which coordinated the operations.
More than 4,500 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean Tuesday on in 30 separate operations in the Strait of Sicily, said Italy's coastguard, which coordinated the missions.
A total of 3,324 migrants were rescued off Libya on Sunday in 26 different operations, the Italian coastguard said, bringing to more than 10,000 the total saved since Thursday.
Another 3,000 migrants were rescued from stricken boats in waters off Libya on Tuesday, the Italian coastguard said,
lifting the total saved in the space of 48 hours to 5,600.
An elderly woman was sleeping as flames began to engulf her house in north-west Italy, but luckily her cats were on hand to wake her up, allowing her to escape the blaze.
A 32-year-old homeless illegal migrant who jumped into Rome’s Tiber river to save a drowning woman has been given a year-long permit to stay in the city.
