File photo:A rescue swimmer holds onto migrants frantically trying to stay afloat after falling off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship in the central Mediterranean in international waters some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya, April 14, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
The coastguard said rescue vessels had picked up 22 people from the boat, and search operations for other survivors were underway after an alert was received late on Sunday night that a boat carrying some 50 people was in difficulty.
Vessels from the coastguard and customs police had reached the boat, which overturned in rough seas about six nautical miles from the coast of Lampedusa, the coastguard said in a statement. Two bodies had been recovered, it added.
