A migrant ship carrying around 100 people has capsized in the frigid waters off Libya and only four survivors have been rescued after hours of searching, aid groups say.
Eight bodies were recovered but poor conditions are hampering the search taking place 50 kilometres off Libya's coast, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
Flavio di Giacomo, Rome spokesman for the International Organisation of Migration, says four people were rescued of an estimated 110 aboard and more details will become available after the four are brought to shore.
The vast majority of migrant ships set off from Libya's lawless coasts, where smugglers operate with impunity charging desperate migrants hundreds of dollars apiece to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.
Last year saw a record high number - 181,000 people - heading to Italy by sea, the EU rescue operation Frontex reported.
West Africans, most of them hailing from Nigeria, accounted for most of the migrants in 2016, with a 10-fold increase in their numbers since 2010, Frontex said.
