At least 27 people are said to have died and 221 people saved after a migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat revealed the number of casualties, three of them children, while the Italian navy said it had rescued 221 from the water during a joint Italian-Maltese operation.
Coastguard spokesman Marco Di Milla said they received a satellite phone call from the boat that was in distress and were able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates.
The Italian navy and Maltese armed forces rescued survivors A Maltese aircraft was sent up and reported that the boat had capsized and that "numerous" people were in the water.
The aircraft dropped a life raft, and a patrol boat soon arrived at the scene, according to a statement from the Maltese armed forces.
Helicopters airlifted the injured to Lampedusa Hospital where a large medical team treated them as soon as they arrived.
Hospital director Pietro Bertolo told journalists: "They are wet and very scared, but they are doing well."
Around 221 people were pulled from the water He said that among the migrants was a "little boy, around two years, who is very beautiful" with his "young" mother.
"They are soaking wet, we are changing them ... the father is still at the scene of the accident and is on a rescue boat," he added.
The incident comes just over a week after a boat carrying African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Lampedusa, killing up to 350 people.
It is the second migrant vessel to sink off Lampedusa in just over a week The deaths have prompted renewed calls for the European Union to do more to better patrol the southern Mediterranean and prevent such tragedies - and for countries like Libya to crack down on smuggling operations.
"We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery," Mr Muscat told a news conference in Valletta, the Maltese capital.
Residents of the remote southern Italian island have long complained that they have been left alone to deal with the thousands of migrants who come ashore each year from Africa and the Middle East.
Up to 350 people died after another boat caught fire and sank last week Some 30,000 migrants have flocked to Italy so far this year. An estimated 17,000 to 20,000 have died while crossing the Mediterranean during the past 20 years on overcrowded fishing boats or rubber dinghies, seeking a better life in Europe.
Eritrea, Somalia and Syria are the main countries of origin and the majority of arrivals are on Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point which is closer to north Africa than to the Italian mainland.
During a visit to Lampedusa this week, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso promised Italy some 30 million euros (£25.5m) in EU funds to better care for newly arrived migrants.
Italian officials pledged to put the issue on the agenda of an upcoming EU summit and on the EU agenda next year, when Italy and Greece hold the EU presidencies.
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