Up to 400 migrants have died after trying to reach Italy from Libya when their boat capsized, authorities said.
The boat, which was carrying 550 migrants, flipped 24 hours after it left the Libyan coast on Sunday, according to survivors from the shipwreck.
The Italian coastguard said they managed to rescue 150 people from the sunken vessel and nine bodies have been recovered.
Authorities said survivors of the latest shipwreck were mostly sub-Saharan Africans, but no further details were available.
Search operations continued today as part of ongoing naval and coastguard patrols in the area.
The International Organisation for Migration and charity Save the Children said between 144 and 150 survivors arrived in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on Tuesday morning.
It comes after more than 500 migrants have already died trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa this year, rising sharply from 47 in the same period of 2014.
The numbers of boats carrying migrants to the EU from Africa has surged in recent weeks as spring weather has made the passage easier.
On Monday, 2,851 migrants were saved in rescue operations in the Mediterranean, the Italian coastguard said, adding to at least nine who died and 5,629 who were saved over the weekend.
Additional Reporting AP.
