ROME (dpa)
Search operations continued on Thursday off the Italian island of Lampedusa for at least 10 missing people, after two boats carrying around 100 migrants capsized.
The ANSA news agency reported that 27 deaths have already been confirmed, among them three children and a baby, according to police sources.
"The endless number of children who have lost their lives trying to reach Europe is unbearable," Save the Children wrote on X.
Citing survivors, the coastguard said on Wednesday that the two boats had set off in the early hours from the Libyan capital, Tripoli. One began to sink, prompting the occupants to transfer to the other boat, which then also capsized.
A helicopter from the Italian financial police, which conducts operations at sea, discovered the accident about 14 nautical miles (26 kilometres) south of Lampedusa on Wednesday morning.
According to reports, 60 people were rescued. The Italian Red Cross said the survivors were exhausted but in a stable condition.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "sympathy for those who lost their lives" in a post on X. At the same time, she reaffirmed the country's hard line against smuggling gangs.
The public prosecutor's office in Agrigento, Sicily, has launched an investigation into suspected negligence in connection with the shipwrecks.
Thousands of people attempt to cross the Mediterranean every year, resulting in frequent fatal accidents.
Chiara Cardoletti, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said more than 700 people have died crossing the central Mediterranean this year already.