Photos: Human traffickers kill 500 migrants by ramming their boat off the coast of Malta

The International Organization for Migration says about 500 migrants are feared dead after their boat was deliberately rammed, causing it to sink off the Malta coast last week.

Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the organisation, said witnesses claim  that the boat left Damietta in Egypt earlier this month with Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese on board.

 

It sank last Wednesday after a group of human traffickers deliberately rammed it with another boat when the passengers refused to transfer on to smaller vessels, she added.

News of the shocking incident comes as dozens died when a boat carrying at least 250 Africans to Europe capsized before it even managed to leave the Libyan coast this morning.

Only nine people are believed to have survived the shocking incident, with most of these transported by helicopter for treatment in Greece.

The news comes as dozens of people died when a boat carrying at least 250 African migrants to Europe capsized before it even managed to leave the Libyan coast this morning. 

The incident occurred near the capital Tripoli this morning according to Qassim Ayoub, the spokesman for Libya's coastguard.

He said divers are still retrieving bodies floating roughly 11 miles off the coast of Tripoli's Tajoura district, adding that 36 migrants, including three women - one of them pregnant - were saved.