Up to 150 Europe-bound migrants were missing and feared drowned on Thursday after the boats they were traveling in capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, the coast guard and the UN refugee agency said.
If the toll is confirmed, it would be the highest from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean this year.
Ayoub Gassim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard, told Associated Press that two boats carrying about 300 people capsized about 75 miles (120km) east of the capital, Tripoli. About 137 people were rescued and returned to Libya, he said. The coastguard had recovered one body so far.
There were about 250 people on board, mainly from Eritrea and other sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries, when the boat capsized off the coast near Al-Khums, east of the capital Tripoli, Qassim said.
Vira Maritime