At least 26 dead and a dozen missing after boat capsizes near Italian island
Sixty survivors were pulled from the water and taken to a Lampedusa reception centre, with four rushed to hospital, according to the Italian Red Cross and UN agencies.
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The disaster struck early Wednesday when an Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted the overturned vessel and bodies in the water around 14 miles from Lampedusa.
Five ships, two aircraft and a helicopter were deployed in the ongoing search for more survivors.
The coastguard said the death toll remains 'provisional and being updated.'
Survivor accounts suggest between 92 and 97 people were on board when the boat departed Libya.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the group originally set off on two vessels from the Tripoli area.
When one began taking on water, all passengers were crammed into a fibreglass boat which later capsized in international waters due to overloading.
'It is not immediately known how long the migrants had been at sea,' Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino said, adding the tragedy happened 'presumably at dawn.'
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who has made tackling illegal immigration a key priority, vowed to keep fighting 'unscrupulous traffickers' by 'preventing irregular departures' and 'managing migration flows.'
She said: 'When a tragedy like this occurs, with the deaths of dozens of people in the waters of the Mediterranean, a strong sense of dismay and compassion arises in all of us.
'That today's tragedy occurred despite a ready and operational international response warns us that the necessary rescue effort is not sufficient and, above all, does not address the root causes of this tragic problem.'
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