Boat carrying 100 migrants sinks off Tunisia coast

Seventy-six people have been reported missing after a boat carrying around 100 people sank near the south-eastern city of Sfax in Tunisia.

The UN's migration agency IOM in Tunisia tweeted that one body had been recovered so far, and 30 others were rescued by the Tunisian coastguard.

According to the privately-owned Tunisian Kapitalis news site, the overcrowded boat set sail from the Libyan shores of Zuwara, close to the Tunisian-Libyan border.

The news comes just days after two other boats sank off the coast of Sfax province.

In one of the incidents, eight Tunisians from the central coastal city of Monastir went missing, according to the state-run Shems FM radio station.

At least four other migrants died and 10 were reported missing in the other incident, following the sinking of a boat carrying 58 migrants.

Tunisia is one of North Africa's main transit points for migrants attempting to make the crossing to Europe.

Most come from sub-Saharan African countries.

This article originally appeared in BBC News

Photo: AFP