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.

She said she and two others managed to stay together in the water for a while, but eventually lost contact during the storm.

All others on board are believed to have been killed.

Spokeswoman for Compass Collective Katja Tempel told the BBC that the young girl was found wearing a simple life jacket and two tyre inner tubes.

She has been handed over to Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa.

The International Organisation for Migration, a UN body, says at least 30,955 migrants have either been killed or are missing after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea since it began recording figures 10 years ago.