(ANSA) - PALERMO, 07 MAY - "I'm fine, don't worry." A few minutes' phone call to reassure his son and confirm that he will soon be in Mazara del Vallo with all his crew. The phone call that the young owner Alessandro Giacalone had been waiting for hours arrived late at night. Only after 11 pm he had the opportunity to hear from his father Giuseppe, the commander of the fishing boat Aliseo who was wounded in the arm and head yesterday by gunshots fired by a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat. "Very few minutes were spent on the satellite phone on board, during which, from my father's voice, I could see that he was fine and that he was only slightly injured", the son told ANSA.
The military doctors of the Libeccio frigate of the Navy went on board to rescue him. "My dad told me that the gunshots were fired at eye level - explains Alessandro Giacalone - and the proof is the fact that some of the cockpit glass shattered. The coccilos hit on the head, while a bullet grazed him in the arm ".
The trade wind in these hours is heading towards the port of Mazara del Vallo where it should arrive at dawn tomorrow.
On board the seven crewmen, including the commander: five are Italian, two Tunisians. The fishing boat was out twenty days ago for a long red shrimp fishing trip. The area where the Libyan patrol boat boarded yesterday is particularly full of fish, beaten by fishing boats from the Mazara navy. (HANDLE).