According to reports in Tunisian media, migrants on board a boat attacked Tunisian coast guard officers when they tried to stop them from setting off towards Italy, reported the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP). Authorities have begun an investigation into the incident.

The migrants "disobeyed" orders from the coast guard and "refused to heed the signals to stop issued by the National Maritime Guard," stated the prosecuting magistrate leading the investigation, Hichem Ben Ayyad, as reported by the online news service Tunisie Numerique (TN).

The migrants went on to "violently attack some members of the coast guard", including the throwing of stones at the officers as well as "other solid objects," stated the report.

One of the agents alleging he was attacked by the migrants "bears traces of the violence," TN reported, without stipulating what kind of traces the agent bore.

Coast guard seized migrants and their boat

Once they realized that the migrants were going to try and continue their journey, the agents "followed them, and seized the migrants and their boat" and brought them back to land, reported TN.

Before that, however, the migrants seized another boat with a security agent on board and later tied his hands, according to Hichem Ben Ayyad, as reported by the news platform Euractiv.

"The migrants also pushed another security agent into the sea after injuring him in the chest with a sharp object," added Ben Ayyad, confirming that that agent’s condition is now "stable."

According to the TN report, the migrants were attempting to travel in a metal boat known for quickly becoming unseaworthy. Many of these vessels are roughly soldered together and put to sea for use by mostly sub-Saharan African migrants.

Tunisia asks Europe for more aid to combat migration

Also on Wednesday, Tunisia’s Prime Minister urged European countries to increase the financial assistance his country receives to help stop further attempts by migrants to reach Europe, reported the news agency Reuters.

"The aid provided is insufficient to address the problem," explained Ahmed Hachani during a migration conference in Tripoli, attended by European and North African leaders, including Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Hachani said that Tunisia was exhausting its public finances trying to deal with what he termed the migration crisis. He said some towns in the south of the country, like Amra and Jbeniana, had "absorbed migrants beyond their ability." The Tunisian Interior Ministry estimates that there are around 23,000 migrants in Tunisia hoping to cross to Europe.

In neighboring Libya, the UN Migration Agency IOM estimates that there are around 706,000 migrants, as well as about 2.5 million refugees. Most of the leaders present agreed that more needed to be done to "tackle problems in the countries of origin" if there was to be any reduction in the numbers of migrants leaving their home countries and attempting to reach Europe.

Presidential elections are scheduled for October 6 this year in Tunisia.

With AFP and Reuters