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ROME: Rescuers recovered eight bodies and saved 1,400 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe by boat, Italian coastguard said on Tuesday.

The migrant corpses and survivors were transferred to rescue vessels from at least 11 overcrowded boats off the Libyan coast amid calm seas, according to coastguard.

One migrant who had a heart attack and two suffering from severe hypothermia were taken to hospital by helicopter.

The coast guard ship Diciotti took seven corpses from a rubber boat, while one body was recovered from another rubber vessel by the Topaz, a ship run by humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

The migrant vessels included one wooden trawler that was carrying 450-500 people as well as two smaller wooden boats and several overcrowded inflatable dinghies, the Red Cross said.

The survivors included migrants from Syria, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and sub-Saharan Africa. </s> ROME — The Italian coast guard says 6,055 migrants have been rescued in one day in the Mediterranean off Libya. Nine bodies were recovered.

The coast guard said it a total of 39 rescues Monday in the sea about 30 miles north of Tripoli. Smugglers took advantage of the first day of calm seas after days of rough waters to launch vessels crowded with migrants who pay them in hopes of reaching European shores.

Most of the vessels were rubber dinghies, but there were also two rafts.

Doctors Without Borders said the dead included a 23-year-old pregnant woman.

Italian coast guard and navy ships, as well as vessels in European Frontex sea patrols and several humanitarian organizations, participated in the rescues.

Two migrants needing medical care were flown to Sicily's Lampedusa island. </s> At least 97 African migrants are believed drowned after their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea today.

The Libyan coast guard said 23 people were rescued, but most are still missing.

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said 23 migrants were rescued around 6 miles off the Libyan coast after authorities received a distress call.

Fifteen women and five children are among those still missing.

He said the boat, which was packed with African nationals seeking a better life in Europe, ‘completely collapsed.’

Chaotic Libya has become a major avenue of migration, with thousands braving the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.

More than 4,500 migrants perished on the crossing in 2016 alone.

Smugglers use often rickety vessels to ferry thousands of migrants from the north African country to Europe each month. Mass drownings are common when the overloaded boats capsize or sink.

The German government on Thursday said it would support a ban on the export of boats from the European Union to Libya as part of measures to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean. </s> More than 2,000 migrants rescued in dramatic day in Mediterranean

More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, Reuters reported.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

"The sea continues to be a graveyard," MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

"In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today," said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing. </s> The bodies of at least 34 migrants, many of them young children, were recovered from the sea off Libya after some 200 migrants tumbled into rough waters when their overcrowded smugglers' boat capsized Wednesday, the Italian coast guard said.

"Many of the bodies are small toddlers," tweeted Chris Catambrone of the non-profit group MOAS, which was helping in the rescue effort.

MOAS tweeted photos showing survivors in orange life vests bobbing in Mediterranean waters as they awaited rescue.

"The immediate intervention of the coast guard boat Fiorillo and the MOAS boat Phoenix permitted the rescue of the majority of the migrants who had fallen into the water," the Italian coast guard said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day, the coast guard said some 200 of 500 migrants aboard had fell into the sea, either because a big wave hit the vessel or many migrants suddenly shifted to one side.

The capsizing incident was one of several rescue operations coordinated by the Italian coast guard. In all, some 1,800 migrants were rescued Wednesday from unseaworthy dinghies or wooden fishing boats. A commercial tugboat and three cargo ships in the vicinity were pressed into service to save lives, along with vessels from the Italian navy, a European patrol force and non-profit vessels, the coast guard said. </s> People gather along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea during a search for victims after a migrant boat capsized in Al Beheira, Egypt, Wednesday (Reuters photo)

BURG RASHID, Egypt — A boat carrying almost 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast on Wednesday, killing at least 43, in the latest disaster among migrants trying to reach Europe.

The boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Burg Rashid, a village in the northern Beheira province. Officials said 31 bodies had been found, 20 men, 10 women and one child. A Reuters correspondent later saw a fishing boat bring in 12 more bodies, bringing the total so far to 43.

Rescue workers have so far saved 154 people, officials said, meaning about 400 could still be missing.

"Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit. The boat tilted and the migrants fell into the water," a senior security official in Beheira told Reuters.

The boat had been carrying Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean, and Somali migrants, officials said.

At a coastguard checkpoint in Burg Rashid, where the Mediterranean meets the Nile, dozens gathered, anxiously waiting for news of missing relatives.

"I am not going to leave until I see Mohamed," Ratiba Ghonim wailed. Her 16-year-old brother had left an impoverished village nearby in search of a better life.

"It is his destiny to leave yesterday and come back dead today. They still haven't pulled his body out of the water."

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said all resources possible would be directed into the rescue mission and that those responsible had to be brought to justice.

It was not immediately clear where the boat had been heading. Officials said they believed it was going to Italy.

More and more people have been trying to cross to Italy from the African coast over the summer months, particularly from Libya, where people-traffickers operate with relative impunity, but also from Egypt.

Some 320 migrants and refugees drowned off the Greek island of Crete in June. Migrants who survived told authorities their boat had set sail from Egypt.

Some 206,400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

More than 2,800 deaths were recorded between January and June, compared with 1,838 during the same period last year.

World leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, gathered in New York this week at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the migrant crisis.

Some 1.3 million migrants reached Europe's shores last year fleeing war and economic hardship, prompting bitter rows among states over how to share responsibility.

If they survive the perilous maritime journey, migrants this year face stronger EU border controls.

Mohamed Nasrawy, an Egyptian fisherman, said he knew seven people on the shipwrecked vessel, two of whom were still missing.

He made an abortive effort to travel to Greece a year ago.

"Look how this incident has shocked people, but tonight more people are going to set sail," he told Reuters.

"The poverty that they are living in is what is pushing them. Although we are not Europeans, they take good care of people, while our country doesn't." </s> More than 700 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya have been rescued in the Mediterranean sea today.

Refugees fleeing the troubled country on small inflatable dinghies were rescued by emergency teams as they sailed toward the Italian coast, about 17 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, earlier this morning.

Members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, a group set up to help rescue migrants at sea, helped pull them from their inflatable boats before handing them over to the Italian coastguards operating in the area.

Thousands of migrants try each year to flee Libya and make it to Italy but many drown during the crossing.

They cram into boats that are small and unsafe for the 190-mile perilous journey from Libya's shores.

A total of 4,027 migrants and refugees have perished since January trying to flee wars and poverty looking for a better life mainly in Europe, the International Organisation for Migration said last week.

Of that total, some 3,120 died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, including 120 who drowned off Libya's coastal town of Sabratha at the end of July, it said. </s> At least 6,000 refugees have been rescued in 24 hours after trying to reach Europe from Libya in about 40 boats.

The Italian coastguard said a total of 6,055 migrants had been rescued from the water, and nine bodies were recovered.

The rescue operation, which was coordinated by Italian authorities, was one of the largest seen in a single day.

It is thought Libyan traffickers took advantage of the first day of calm seas after several days of high waves to launch boats overloaded with people paying to reach Europe.

Most of the vessels were inflatable dinghies, along with two converted fishing boats.

One coast guard ship rescued as many as 725 migrants from a single inflatable boat.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the dead included a 23-year-old pregnant woman.

According to recuers around 200 children were saved from just one boat. Most were unaccompanied by adults, and nine of them were under five years old.

The vast rescue operation, just 30 miles off the Libyan coast, saw Italian coast guard boats along with navy ships conducting rescues, as well as vessels from the EU’s Frontex patrols work to bring the refugees to safety.

Two people, including a pregnant woman, required emergency medical care and were taken by helicopter to a hospital on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa.

Bel Trew, a reporter for The Times, was with one of the rescue crews and said many of the refugees were injured and several in a critical condition were air evacuated.

The mass rescue comes three years to the day after 366 people drowned off the coast of Lampedusa. The sinking of the vessel in 2013 alerted the international community to the migrant Mediterranean crisis.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, around 132,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, and 3,054 have died in their attempts. </s> CLOSE Hopes are fading for 44 people still missing more than a day after an overcrowded speedboat carrying Indonesian migrant workers capsized and sunk in rough seas, claiming at least 18 lives. Newslook

A handout frame video provided on Oct. 5, 2016 and released by the Italian Coast Guard shows migrants boarding a ship during a rescue operation conducted off the Italian coast near Lampedusa. (Photo: ITALIAN COAST GUARD / HANDOUT, EPA)

Hundreds of migrants are believed to have drowned after two boats sank off the coast of Libya, a United Nations official said Thursday.

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), said at least 239 people were dead, Reuters reported. She said two survivors who were taken ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa told authorities that the rubber dinghies they were traveling in capsized Wednesday in heavy seas shortly after leaving Libya.

The first boat sank when wooden planks at the bottom broke, causing the dinghy to capsize 25 miles off the Libyan coast, the UNHCR said. Among the 140 people on board were six children and about 20 women, some pregnant. Twenty-nine people were rescued, and 12 bodies were recovered.

Two women found swimming at sea told rescuers that 128 other people had died in their wreck.

“I am deeply saddened by another tragedy on the high seas,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said. “So many lives could be saved through more resettlement and legal pathways to protection. The Mediterranean is a deadly stretch of sea for refugees and migrants, yet they still see no other option but to risk their lives to cross it.”

Most people on board appeared to have been sub-Saharan Africans, the Associated Press reported.

The International Organization for Migration said 4,220 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. Last month, UNHCR said more than 3,800 people were dead or missing in the Mediterranean in 2016, making it the highest figure ever.

The refugee crisis escalated in 2015 as more and more people fled regional conflicts and made the journey across the Mediterranean in hopes of a better life in Europe. Most refugees are from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The vast majority of fatalities occur on the treacherous route between Libya and Italy, according to the Global Migration Data Analysis Center in Berlin.

Also Thursday, human rights organization Amnesty International said in a report that pressure on Italy from the European Union to “get tough” on migrants has led to incidents that may amount to torture.

Allegations made in the report against authorities include beatings, electric shocks and sexual humiliation.

“In their determination to reduce the onward movement of refugees and migrants to other member states, EU leaders have driven the Italian authorities to the limits – and beyond – of what is legal,” Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International’s researcher on Italy, said in a statement.

“The result is that traumatized people, arriving in Italy after harrowing journeys, are being subjected to flawed assessments and in some instances appalling abuse at the hands of the police, as well as unlawful expulsions.”

The Italian authorities didn't immediately respond to the claims.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Rescuers recovered 8 bodies and saved 1400 migrants adrift on the Mediterranean Sea today.