Refugees and migrants are reportedly drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya's coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to aid agencies and officials.
According to Aljazeera News, Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya's coastguard, told The Associated Press news agency that two boats carrying around 300 people sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 others were rescued.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.
"We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea," he said. "The dead include women and children."
"The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred," Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said.
He, however called on European nations to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea tragedy.
Photo credit: Aljazeera News
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