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Migrant boat capsizes off Libyan coast; hundreds feared dead

By Danielle Haynes

SABRATHA, Libya, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- At least 40 people died and hundreds more were feared dead Thursday after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, authorities said.

A security official in Zuwara, Libya, told Britain's Sky News local authorities fear up to 200 of the 400 migrants on board the vessel died. The Libyan coast guard rescued 200 people and transported them to a detention facility in Sabratha, the official said.

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A representative from Doctors Without Borders put the number of survivors closer to 110. The humanitarian organization told The Guardian 40 bodies were found inside the partially sunk boat and an estimated 160 bodies were floating in the water nearby.

Many of the bodies, the group said, were left in the water overnight after coast guard officials lost daylight.

The migrants were traveling to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh. The estimated deaths from Thursday's incident mean more than 2,300 people have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, fleeing fighting and other harsh conditions in their home countries.

European officials estimate nearly 300,000 people have migrated from war-torn nations to Europe so far this year -- the biggest influx of refugees the continent has seen since World War II.

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Earlier Thursday, authorities found the bodies of at least 20 migrants decomposing in the back of a truck in Austria.

Doug G. Ware contributed to this report.

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