ROME: A migrant boat sank off Libya’s coast on Thursday, with some 20 bodies spotted in the sea. Officials said 88 people had been rescued.

The Libyan coastguard reported finding four bodies as well as two empty boats, suggesting there could be many more victims.

Photos tweeted by the European Union’s Mediterranean mission sho­wed a bright blue dinghy submerged under the weight of migrants waving their arms to the EU aircraft, hoping for rescue. None had a life jacket.

Two Italian coastguard vessels and Spanish frigate the Reina Sofia intervened at the scene, said Navy Lt Rino Gentile, an EU spokesman. The scene was some 55km off Libya’s coast.

Lt Gentile said 77 people had been rescued. Italian Coastguard Cmdr Cosimo Nicastro gave the figure of 88 rescued. Lt Gentile said about 20 bodies had been spotted in the sea.

In other rescue operations, a Libyan navy spokesman said a total of 766 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard.

He also said that two boats were found empty in the area, and only four bodies were retrieved while the rest of its migrants were feared dead.

Meanwhile, survivors of a shipwreck on Wednesday said that about 100 migrants might have drowned in that incident, the International Organisation of Migration said.

“The survivors who talked to our teams when they landed at Porto Empedocle (Sicily) spoke of 100 missing people who were stuck in the hull,” IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said.

According to those who made it to land, the boat was carrying some 650 people when it set sail from Libya, “most of them Moroccans”, Di Giacomo said.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2016