Fears for up to 130 Libyan migrants as rubber boat capsizes off coast

A search is underway after 10 bodies were spotted near the remains of a rubber boat bound for Europe.

Boat packed with migrants shipwrecks off Libya.

Approximately 130 migrants are feared dead after ten bodies were spotted near a capsized rubber boat off the coast of Libya on Thursday.

The vessel was attempting to flee the Middle East for European shores before flipping over in international waters, prompting a search effort from NGOs in the area.

European humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee said it was alerted on Tuesday, by the volunteer-run Mediterranean rescue hotline Alarm Phone, to the presence of three boats in distress off Libyan coast.

The NGO‘s Ocean Viking ship, as well as merchant vessels, headed to the area in difficult conditions, with up to six-metre waves.

“Since we arrived on scene today, we have not found any survivors while we could see at least ten bodies in the vicinity of the wreck. We are heartbroken,” said Luisa Albera, search and rescue co-ordinator aboard Ocean Viking.

The remains of the boat packed with a suspected 130 migrants shipwrecked off Libya.

On Wednesday, the Ocean Viking spent all day searching for a wooden boat in distress, with no success. The fate of the 40 people on-board remains unknown.

“There is no hope of finding any survivors,” French journalist Emmanuelle Chaze told AFP by phone from on-board the rescue ship, adding that ”many bodies” had been spotted.

Last week the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that at least 41 people, including a child, died after a boat carrying African migrants to Europe sank off Tunisia.

Over 450 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the IOM, most attempting to reach Europe from Tunisia or Libya.

-- with AFP