carlotta asami , a spokeswoman for the united nations ' refugee agency , made the comments to cnn early tuesday after she and two of her colleagues had spoken to multiple survivors from the disaster who arrived in catania , italy .
they say that there was a point in which they were very close and probably what happened is that , you know , a big ship creating a big wave .
they were approaching in a very strong manner and they lost balance , '' asami said .
the account she offered differs from that provided by italian authorities on sunday .