700 feared dead in Libya ship mishap

Rome: As many as 700 migrants are feared drowned after their packed boat capsized off Libya in what is being described as the deadliest such disaster to date in the Mediterranean. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and Italy's coastguard said only 28 people had survived the wreck. Testimonies suggested there had been about 700 people on board the 20-metre fishing boat, officials said. "It seems we are looking at the worst massacre ever seen in the Mediterranean," UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said.

Hundreds feared dead

Migrant boat capsizes in Mediterranean

Seven hundred people are feared to have drowned when a fishing boat smuggling migrants to Europe capsized off Libya, the UN's refugee agency said on Sunday , in what could be the deadliest Mediterranean migrant disaster yet.Only 28 people survived the capsize, UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami told the Skytg24 news channel in Italy. The survivors indicated there had been more than 700 on board, she said.

The Maltese navy put the numbers on board at around 650 and said an alert had come in around midnight local time on Saturday."We have deployed our assets along with others from Italy and we are assisting in the rescue operation," a Maltese navy spokesman said on Sunday without giving any other details.If confirmed, the tragedy would be by far the biggest in a growing catalogue of mass drownings of migrants attempting to reach the European Union on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats run by people smugglers.

The boat went down about 96 km off the Libyan coast and 193 km south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.The disaster comes after a week in which two other shipwrecks left an estimated 450 people dead. More than 11,000 other would-be immigrants to Europe have been rescued by Italy's coastguard and other boats.

Some 1,500 migrants have now drowned in the waters between Libya and Italy since the start of the year.Aid organisations have called for a concerted international effort to put better search-and-rescue systems in place and for action to stem the unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers and migrants from Asia, the Middle East and Africa seeking to reach Europe.

The Coast Guard said at least 28 survivors had been rescued by this morning. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat put the number of survivors at 50.It was not clear whether Muscat's figure included the 28 survivors reported by Italy. Maltese search units were aiding rescue efforts.Muscat said rescuers were seeing people in the sea and were "checking who is alive and who is dead." The capsizing of such a crowded boat represented the "biggest human tragedy of the last few years," Muscat said.

A United Nations refugee agency spokeswoman Carlotta Sami tweeted that according to one survivor, the boat had set out with 700 migrants aboard.But the Coast Guard and other authorities said they had no immediate way to determine how many were aboard or how many might still be rescued. The total number of passengers was expected to be clarified as officers interviewed survivors.