At least 130 migrants feared drowned in Mediterranean as capsized boat, bodies found

A rubber boat is seen after having capsized with more than 100 migrants on board, during a search and rescue (SAR) operation in the Mediterranean Sea, off the Libyan Coast

A search in the Mediterranean sea for boats packed with migrants has found ten bodies floating near a capsized rubber boat that was believed to have been carrying 130 people, the French humanitarian organisation SOS Mediterranee said. Another wooden boat was still missing with about 40 migrants aboard, a spokesman for SOS Mediterranee said on Friday. The civil hotline Alarm Phone had reported three boats were in distress on Wednesday, prompting SOS Mediterranee to launch a search ‘in very rough seas, with up to 6-metre waves’, the non-government organisation said in a news release issued earlier. Three merchant vessels helped the charity's own rescue ship Ocean Viking search for the boats in international waters, northeast of the Libyan city of Tripoli.