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Search As Hundreds Of Boat Migrants Feared Dead

Hundreds of people are feared drowned after a fishing boat trying to smuggle migrants to Europe capsized off Libya.

A major search and rescue operation by air and sea is taking place after the vessel went down about 120 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Italian prosecutors say a Bangladeshi survivor said as many as 950 people were aboard the boat, including hundreds who had been locked in the hold by smugglers.

Earlier reports said a survivor had claimed some 700 migrants were aboard.

It is believed the vessel overturned when migrants moved to one side of the overcrowded 20-metre long boat in a desperate bid to get off and be rescued as a merchant ship approached.

At least 28 people were saved in the Mediterranean, while 24 were confirmed dead amid fears for hundreds of others.

The alarm was raised at about midnight and the Italian coastguard and navy are continuing to search through the night for survivors.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said officials were "not in a position to confirm or verify" that the number of people aboard the boat, which was on its way to Malta.

And he called for an emergency summit of leaders from across Europe to discuss how to prevent further deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean.

"We are working to ensure this meeting can be held by the end of the week. It has to be a priority," he said.

The capsizing comes amid a large number of migrants trying to leave Libya for Italian shores.

So far, at least 900 have died attempting the journey this year as boats capsized. This includes around 400 who were presumed drowned in a shipwreck last week.

The latest disaster could be the worst seen during the decades-long migrant crisis in the southern Mediterranean .

Carlotta Sami, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said: "It seems we are looking at the worst massacre ever seen in the Mediterranean."

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said foreign ministers would discuss the issue at a scheduled meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who will be at Monday's meeting, said: "We must target the traffickers who are responsible for so many people dying at sea and prevent their innocent victims from being tricked or forced into making these perilous journeys."

French President Francois Hollande said the EU must do more, telling Canal+ television that rescue and disaster prevention efforts needed "more boats, more overflights and a much more intense battle against people trafficking".

"Those who put people on these boats are smugglers," he said.

"They are even terrorists, because they know perfectly well that these boats are unsafe and that they will destroy the boats in the middle of the sea and put hundreds of people at risk to their lives."

Pope Francis also made a new appeal to EU leaders to act to stop the loss of life off Italy's southern coast.

International aid groups and Italian authorities have criticised Europe's so-called "Triton" border protection operation as inadequate to tackle the scale of the problem.

It has a much smaller budget and narrow remit that the more comprehensive Italian search-and-rescue mission which it replaced.

The "Mare Nostrum" or "Our Sea" operation was cancelled last year due to the cost.

Italy scaled back the mission after it was unable to persuade European partners to help meet its operating costs of nine million euros (£6.5m) per month.

There were divisions over the mission as some politicians said it encouraged migrants to depart by raising their hopes of being rescued.