At least 73 Europe-bound migrants are missing and presumed dead in a shipwreck off Libya, the United Nations migration agency said.
The UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement that the wreck took place on Tuesday, and that Libyan authorities have retrieved at least 11 bodies.
It said the boat, carrying around 80 migrants, reportedly departed from the village of Qasr al-Khayar, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
The migrants were heading to European shores, it said.
Seven migrants survived the shipwreck and made it to Libyan shores, the UN said, in “extremely dire conditions”.
They were taken to hospital.
Tuesday’s shipwreck was the latest sea tragedy in the central Mediterranean, a key route for migrants.
The tragedy took the death tally on that route to at least 130 migrants this year, IOM said.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe.
The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a Nato-backed uprising that toppled and killed long-time autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
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