DHAKA: As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight.

The Times of Malta reported on Sunday, reports The Straits Times.

Twenty-eight people were rescued in the incident, which happened in an area just off Libyan waters, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, the newspaper’s website reported.

The emergency was declared at about midnight local time. The boat was believed to have capsized when migrants moved to one side of the vessel to catch the attention of a passing merchant ship.

A Maltese Navy spokesman told the BBC that Italian ships and commercial boats were also involved in the emergency operation.

BDST: 1414 HRS, APR 19, 2015
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