1000 migrants rescued from abandoned cargo ship

970 migrants have been rescued from a cargo ship that was found adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Cross said.

The crew, believed to be human traffickers, had abandoned the Blue Sky M, listed as a general cargo ship flying under the Moldovan flag, and left it heading towards Italy on autopilot.

Italian coastguards later brought it under control and docked it at the Italian port of Gallipoli.

The migrants, most of whom are Syrians and Kurds, have been taken to local schools and a gymnasium. The Red Cross said that 35 of them were taken to hospital, with some of them treated for hypothermia.

Although the Italian Red Cross had previously said that four people were found dead on the ship, it later retracted its repor. Officials now say that no-one is known to have died on the ship, Reuters reports.

Italy has recently had to deal with a massive surge in irregular migrants - many of them from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa - setting off on boats with hopes of reaching Europe.

Although the most common sea route for irregular immigrants is from Libya, this cargo ship is said to have started its voyage in Turkey and was reportedly originally heading for the port of Rijeka in Croatia. According to tracking website MarineTraffic, the ship abruptly changed direction south of Othonoi and started heading west towards Italy.

Italian coast guard spokesman Filippo Marini said that Italy had averted a disaster by interrupting the programmed route that would have had the ship crash into the shore, the AP news agency reported.

"It was a real race against the clock," Marini said. "Unlocking the engines was a difficult and delicate operation, but they managed to do it."

The ship had sent a distress signal to Greek emergency services while it was near the shore of Corfu, prompting the Greek navy to send a helicopter and a warship.

It is common practice for human traffickers who organise the crossings to abandon the vessels at sea in order to avoid arrest.