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At least 92 people died and scores were missing after a boat packed with up to 500 African migrants sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, the coast guard said.
Bodies taken from the water were laid out along the docks as the death toll rose in what looked like one of the worst disasters to hit the perilous route for migrants seeking to reach Europe from Africa.
"It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini told reporters.
The coast guard said 150 survivors had been rescued so far of the 400 to 500 migrants thought to be on the 20-metre (66 ft) boat that caught fire and sank about 1 km (half a mile) off the island.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it believed there were around 500 passengers, all Eritreans who had boarded in Libya.
