Rome ( CNN ) The Italian navy has boarded and retaken control of a fishing boat that had been seized hours earlier by gunmen off the coast of Sicily , the Italian military said Friday . The boat , named Airone , was intercepted some 90 kilometers ( 56 miles ) from the Libyan port of Misrata , according to a statement from the Italian Joint Forces . An Italian naval unit boarded the fishing boat and took custody of a Libyan soldier on the vessel , according to a statement by the Italian Navy . It said during the operation , rifle shots were accidentally fired , and one of the seven fisherman on board was slightly injured . The Airone , carrying three Sicilians and four Tunisians , had embarked from Mazara del Vallo in Sicily five days earlier to fish for shrimp . The Airone 's captain said there were about 10 other ships in the area when it was seized , according to Vito Mazzarino , the boat 's owner . `` At a certain point a tug boat came up and flanked the fish boat and some Libyans came on board , '' Mazzarino said , quoting the captain , Alberto Figuccia . `` They were armed . And at that point chaos erupted . '' Italy is a major gateway to Europe for migrants from North Africa . Thousands of people each year make the dangerous sea journey from North Africa to Europe 's Mediterranean coast , to flee war and poverty . Italy registered more than 10,000 migrants in the first three months of 2015 , according to the International Organization for migration . On Monday , gunmen on a speedboat fired shots in the air and sped away with a wooden boat that was being used to transport migrants , according to Frontex , the European Union 's border management agency . That incident occurred 60 nautical miles from the Libyan coast . The 250 migrants on board had already been transferred on to a different boat , Frontex said on its website . `` This is a sign that smugglers in Libya are running short of boats and are more willing to use weapons to recover those used to transport the migrants , '' said Fabrice Leggeri , Frontex 's executive director , in a news release . Italian police : Muslim migrants threw Christians overboard .
Italian Navy retakes fishing boat seized by smugglers . Boat was being steered towards Libyan port of North Africa . Italian navy says shots were fired accidentally , one fisherman injured .