A fishing boat packed with 257 migrants heading for Europe has sunk off the Libyan coast and at least 10 Egyptians are among the dead, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said today.
MENA quoted an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official as saying Libyan rescue workers had found 20 survivors from the ship including six Egyptians, but gave no details on the fate of passengers of other nationalities.
"Libyan search and rescue operations led to the recovery of the bodies of those who drowned as a result of the accident, among them the bodies of 10 Egyptians," MENA reported, citing Egypt's assistant foreign minister for consular affairs, Ahmed Rizk.
Mr Rizk told MENA that the ship had left Libya's northern Mediterranean coast yesterday morning, and that the boat later sank about 30km off the Libyan coast due to a holed hull.
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had been informed that a ship had sunk, and that the ship's crew was rescued by Libyan authorities. He had no further information.
Reuters