Libya has apologised for shooting at a Sicilian trawler, the Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said yesterday as he sought to calm the storm provoked by the Tripoli speedboat.

“What took place the other night should not have happened and Libya has apologised”, Mr Maroni said in an interview with Canale 5 television channel.

“I have opened an inquiry, but I get the impression they thought the fishing trawler was a boat carrying illegal immigrants,” the minister added.

Mr Maroni stressed that the three inquiries which have been opened, by the Italian interior ministry, the prosecution in Agrigente in southern Sicily, and by Tripoli, would get to the bottom of what happened.

Italian newspapers have given front-page coverage to Sunday night’s shooting, when a speedboat given to Libya by Italy to combat illegal immigration, opened fire at a trawler coming from Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily.

No one on board was injured, but “it was total hell and for several minutes we did not understand anything,” the trawler’s captain Gaspare Marrone said to the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“They even shot at gas cylinders and that could have resulted in a massacre,” Mr Marrone said about the incident that took place in the Gulf of Sidra. “It was pure luck that we came out of it unharmed.”

Last year, Rome and Tripoli reached a controversial agreement that allows the Italian navy to intercept illegal migrants at sea and return them to Libya, triggering sharp criticism from the UNHCR and rights groups.

In response to reports in the media that Italian military had been on board the Libyan speedboat, Mr Maroni said this was in accord with the agreement and military would provide technical assistance without being crew members.