At least 10 migrants feared dead after boat sinks off Libyan coast

Rome

At least 10 migrants who were seeking to reach Europe are feared dead after their inflatable dinghy capsized off the coast of Libya, a local prosecutor on the Italian island of Sicily said Thursday.

A UNHCR spokesman had earlier said that the potential toll could reach up to 40, but prosecutor Francesco Paolo Giordino said it would be closer to "about a dozen". 

"From what I managed to find out, the victims were on an inflatable boat that was carrying about 100 migrants," said Giordino. 

"Eighty-eight people were rescued but the others perished at sea," he said, adding that a claim that the sinking was an accident had still to be verified.

Earlier Thursday, the UNHCR's spokesman in Italy, Federico Fossi, told AFP: "My colleagues are interviewing the survivors... who arrived this afternoon in Augusta (Sicily), and they are talking of 35 to 40 people missing at sea."

The refugee agency said most of the migrants were men from sub-Saharan African countries, including Somalia, Eritrea, Benin and Mali.

Italian daily La Reppublica said three dinghies set sail from Tripoli but one of them, with 120 people on board, started filling up with water and eventually sank.