At least 20 migrants die in shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa island, UN says

Part of the coast of the small island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily. File picture: Tiziana Fabi/Getty

At least 20 people have died after a migrant boat capsized off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, a United Nations agency and local media reported on Wednesday.

Rescuers have recovered 20 bodies so far and operations were continuing, according to initial reports by Ansa news agency. Between 70 and 80 people were believed to have survived.

Filippo Ungaro, from the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, expressed "deep anguish" over the disaster and said more migrants could still be missing at sea.

"Twenty bodies have been recovered and the same number are missing," he wrote on his account on social media platform X.

The Italian interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— Reuters