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700 migrants being smuggled to Europe drown

Rescuers are said to be searching for survivors amongst corpses floating in the water.

Rescuers are still at the scene finding survivors

About 700 people have been reported dead after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean sea on Sunday, April 19.

Rescuers are searching for survivors amongst corpses floating in the water, Malta's Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, who confirmed the accident on Twitter said.

Reports say the capsized boat was packed with hundreds of migrants being smuggled to Europe.

Only 28 of them, according to Italy’s coastguard and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), have so far been rescued alive.

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The tragedy is said to be the biggest to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean.

"Children, men, and women have died,” Muscat said.

The disaster was the latest in a growing catalogue of mass drowning of migrants attempting to reach Europe on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats run by smugglers who are able to operate out of Libya with impunity because of the chaos engulfing the North African country.

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