After receiving a distress call late on Saturday, a coast guard boat and an aircraft went to the area, rescued 34 people and took them to the port of Syracuse, the authority said in a statement.

However, one migrant died on arrival at the port and another later died in hospital. The coast guard said it was still searching for one missing person.

The migrants on board the boat were of Syrian, Egyptian and Bengali nationality.

According to U.N. data, more than 23,500 migrants have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean since 2014.