Up to 700 migrants are feared dead after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast.
The Maltese Navy has launched a major rescue operation after the capsized shortly after midnight, according to the Times of Malta.
According to reports, a total of 28 migrants have been rescued so far, and Italian ships and commercial boats have joined in the rescue – but hundreds more are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.
It’s believed that tragedy struck after the migrants on board went to one side of the boat as a merchant ship approached, causing the vessel to capsize.
Speaking to the BBC, Times of Malta journalist Mark Micallef said that the incidents were not ‘uncommon’.
‘We have seen this sort of scenario happen all over again, where a boat gets capsized right at the moment of rescue’, he said.
‘This is part of the problem: merchant vessels… ill equipped to do rescues, are being tasked to do a job they’re not designed for’.
A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said the boat capsized about 130 miles off the Italian coast of Lampedusa – close to the location where more than 100 died when a boat sank in similar circumstances in 2013.
‘At the moment, this is still a search and rescue operation, but in time it will be a search [for bodies] only, he said.’
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