About 12 Ghanaian and Nigerian migrants have been confirmed dead after they were thrown into the Mediterranean Sea.
The twelve were drowned after a fight broke out between Christians and Muslims who were migrating from Libya to Italy.
The original group of 105 people left Libya on Tuesday in a rubber boat.
Sometime during the trip north across the Mediterranean Sea, the alleged assailants - Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal -- threw the 12 overboard.
Other people on the voyage told police that they themselves were spared "because they strongly opposed the drowning attempt and formed a human chain," the Italian police said.
The boat was intercepted by an Italian navy vessel, which transferred the passengers to a Panamanian-flagged ship.