(ANSA) - PALERMO, 07 MAY - "We are alive by a miracle, they shot us with buckshot, here the cabin is full of holes". GiuseppeGiacalone replies via radio to ANSA while he is navigating in the direction of Mazara del Vallo. The 'Aliseo' fishing boat will arrive early tomorrow morning. He gets excited when he thinks back to the fact that he is a "miracle worker, because only God has helped us".
Before our eyes the terrible moments experienced yesterday: "It was 2pm when everything happened - he says - while we were sailing towards the North-East, a patrol boat reached us and started firing. The shots reached us and the dashboard windows shattered. ".
The commander reconstructs those convulsive moments, while the Libyan military fired at eye level to force the Aliseo to stop. "It was hell. I was hurt in my arm and in my head too because the window of the cabin shattered and the shards of glass hit me."
Then Giuseppe Giacalone tells that the soldiers aboard the patrol boat, as soon as they realized his injury, tried to justify themselves: "'forgiveness, forgiveness, now we will help you' they repeated while our boat was flown over by the helicopter of the Italian Navy which is immediately intervened to our rescue ". (HANDLE).
