Egyptian smugglers circled and mocked the survivors of their capsized vessel and hacked off the hands of an asylum seeker who clung to the boat in a desperate bid to save himself, survivors told Times of Malta.

“We were treated like dogs all the way but these [Egyptian smugglers] were the worst.

“At one point, when we all ended up in the sea, one man tried to hold on to their boat to save himself, but they chopped his hands off and he ended up in the sea,” 23-year-old Palestinian survivor Mohammed Ali Amadalla recounted yesterday.

He was giving the first comments to the media in the wake of last weekend’s migrants’ tragedy, which left hundreds dead.

Smugglers rammed the migrants’ boat after they refused to switch from the fishing vessel they were on to a smaller boat. Hundreds, including dozens of children, ended up in the sea 300 miles southeast of Malta.

“When the smaller boat came next to us we started shouting that we would not go on it and it left.

“But an hour later, a bigger vessel came, heading straight for us. The smuggler started shouting: Stop! Stop! When we didn’t, they started hitting the boat and people standing on its side with long metal bars. Then suddenly, it headed straight for the side of our boat and rammed us,” he said.

The vessel went down.

“Just seconds and everyone was in the sea. Half the people on board died instantly because they went down with the boat,” Mohammed recounted.

“The smugglers just circled us, mocking us. And then they left.”

Mohammed and his brother Ibrahim, 25, were brought to Malta on Sunday along with 27-year-old fellow Palestinian, Maamoun Dougmoush. They are among a group of just 13 (nine were taken to Crete, though one died on the way, and two were taken to Sicily) who made it out alive from among more than 300 people.

Housed at the Safi detention centre, the men look rested but are still very much agitated. Maamoun’s brother Amin disappeared just minutes before they were rescued by a merchant vessel.

He still harbours hope that his brother and cousin might have somehow made it.

“I need you to check if they are with the other survivors.

“Please... I was with my brother, taking care of him, till the end, because after a few days he started losing it.

“But then as we were being rescued, he wasn’t next to me,” Maamoun said, visibly frustrated that he did not have the energy to do more at that crucial moment. Mohammed said he saw an entire family die of exhaustion and dehydration, right before his eyes.

“I will never be able to remove these images from my head. I saw this entire Syrian family perish one by one. I was next to them most of the time, helping them with the children. First the father died, then the mother, then I was left to take care of their one-year-old boy and he died in my arms, before rescuers came,” he said.

When they were taken on board the merchant ship that eventually rescued them, all three were at the end of their tether and collapsed the minute they were taken up.

The group left for Italy from the Egyptian port of Damietta on Saturday, September 6.

According to Maamoun, the boat capsized on Tuesday, September 9, which means they spent more than four days at sea before rescuers first started arriving at the scene on Friday.

“At first we saw some boats, we would call out but nothing,” Maamoun said.

At that point, the healthiest men split in groups. Some started swimming towards the vessels, while the others stayed with the group to help the women and children.

Ibrahim, a burly young man, said some men who went to call for help failed to return.

“It was horrible. We were trying our best to ration some water we had found but people were just dying around us.

“I was helping two women float by letting them hold my back but they too let go and died eventually.”

Eventually, the AFM and Italian aircraft spotted the survivors.

I was left to take care of their one-year-old boy and he died in my arms before rescuers came

Mohammed, Ibrahim and Maamoun reached Egypt from Palestine in much the same way but they travelled in different groups and only met for the first time on the boat in Egypt.

“We lost our job, our house, everything in Palestine during the war. We were desperate and were being told we could build a new future in Italy,” Mohammed said.

However, all three insist they were swindled by a Palestinian smuggler named Abu Shalam.

“We were told that everything would be legitimate. We were asked to pay $4,000 [which they raised by borrowing and asking relatives to sell any valuables they had] in return for a safe passage to Italy.”

At first, it looked like the smuggler would deliver the goods. He asked them for their passports and had them stamped.

However, it all started going pear-shaped the minute they reached the Palestinian border. The version of events given by the three men is almost identical, even though they did not travel together.

They reached an area close to the Egyptian border after travelling in a blacked-out van.

Once there, they were told to get out of the vehicle and walk by Abu Shalam, but were not told where they were or where they were heading. Eventually, they reached a tunnel at least 25 metres deep which was dug in a field.

“I started protesting that this was not what we had agreed. I told him to give me the passport and the money back but they pointed guns at us and told us to get in,” Maamoun said.

They claimed it would only take a few minutes to reach the other side but instead it took eight long hours, crawling on all fours, through a damp tunnel about one-and-a-half kilometres long.

Mohammed and Ibrahim started their journey through the tunnel as a group of 14 but only seven made it to the other side.

“I really don’t know what happened to the other seven but when we were out, there were only seven of us,” he said.

Once out, on the other side, they were told to run for it before the Egyptians noticed them.

“At one point, we heard gunfire and ran as fast as we could. Eventually we found cars waiting for us,” Mohammed said.

They were taken to an apartment where there were hundreds of people huddled waiting to be transferred to the boats. At this point, the smugglers confiscated all their money but they were given their passports back. Then, at night, they were taken to the port and asked to board small vessels in groups of 20. After travelling for some hours they were asked to transfer to a larger vessel which was waiting out at sea.

This second vessel had about 150 people on board but after a short while they were asked to board a third boat, which was only slightly larger but which also had to take another 150 people from a second boat.

At this point, their immediate concern is to establish if there are any loved ones among the survivors in Crete or Italy but they would also like their harrowing voyage not to have been in vain.

“I would just like a normal life where I can work and earn a living for myself and my family. Even after all of this, I hope this is possible,” Maamoun said, summing up everyone’s thoughts.