A YOUNG girl was rescued from the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday after clinging to car tyre inner tubes for three days during stormy weather.

Rescue organisation Compass Collective said its vessel, Trotamar III, was heading to another emergency at sea when they heard the cries for help from the unnamed 11-year-old. 

The girl, reportedly from Sierra Leone, told her rescuers that she had set off for Europe with another 44 people from the Tunisian port of Sfax, but that their metal boat had sunk during strong storms with 11 foot waves.