A teenage girl was raped and choked to death by an Iraqi migrant as the boat they were on sank in the Mediterranean, horrified witnesses have claimed, with the attacker surviving the shipwreck that saw dozens killed off Italy.

Survivors claimed the man carried out the unspeakable attack after seeing his wife and daughter drown, Italian media reports, ‘venting’ his fury on the helpless 16-year-old girl.

The teenager was raped and suffocated in front of her distraught mother by the 27-year-old man as the sail boat sank, news agency AGI reports citing a police investigation.

The man has since been arrested on suspicion of murdering the girl, who was also of Iraqi origin and had been making the journey to Europe with her mother. She survived the disaster and reported her daughter’s killing to police.

Only twelve people were rescued from the ship, which officials believe had been carrying around 70 people, including more than two dozen children. One of the survivors later died and more than half of the bodies have been recovered.

In a statement, officers confirmed the sailing boat was adrift off the coast of Italy when the man ‘vented his aggression on a 16-year-old Iraqi girl, the daughter of another survivor, leading to her death by suffocation’.

A police spokesperson did not immediately confirm details of the attack.

Those who made it out with their lives described their perilous journey, telling charity workers that ‘they were travelling without life jackets and that some boats did not stop to help them.’

The boat’s engine reportedly exploded, leaving it adrift, with pictures showing it sinking before it became completely submerged with only its mast visible.

The survivors were brought to the port of Roccella Ionica after the ordeal, which took place overnight between June 16 and 17. A female survivor later died.