Photo of at least 28 Migrants dead off Libya Coast

More than 20 migrants are said to have suffocated in the hold of an overloaded boat off the Libyan coast. A photographer who was able to board the stricken wooden vessel said more than 1,000 migrants had been crammed aboard.

They were among at least 28 migrants who died in the area on Tuesday, while some 4,655 people were rescued. The total number rescued over the past two days is more than 10,000, while the death toll is at least 50.

Smugglers have taken advantage of calm weather to push more boats out to sea.

Aris Messinis, a photographer for the French AFP news agency said: "It was a wooden vessel and there were about 1,000 people on three levels. I counted 22 bodies and there are still others in the hold. Mr Messinis's graphic images showed the bodies of dead young men and women, piled on top of one another on the deck of a dinghy and in the cramped hold of a wooden boat.