A Sicilian family is aiming to collect funds to raise the vessel which sunk off Marsascala earlier this month, Sicilian media report.

Two men died in the shipwreck, while two others swam to shore.

Sicilia News reports that the Sapienza family, which owns the fishing vessel, is trying to raise money with which it could raise the vessel from the bottom of the sea and tow it back to Sicily for repairs before it could be used again.

Luciano Sapienza was one of the two fishermen who lost their life in the storm that hit Malta on 4 May. The other was Toumi Zakaria, aged 29, from Morocco. Fabio Sapienza, who together with a Tunisian member of the crew, swam to safety.

The Sapienza family, who say that the boat was their livelihood, are now finding tough bureaucratic walls to overcome in their bid to recover the boat.

They are now seeking to collect the €30,000 they say is needed to raise the boat from the seabed.