Italian coast guards have launched a search after a boat carrying around 50 migrants turned off the island of Lampedusa overnight from Friday to Saturday.
The sinking took place off the small island south of Sicily as the coast guard transferred migrants in difficulty onto their speedboats, they said in a statement.
According to testimonies collected Saturday morning from survivors, five people are missing.
In a new statement released on Saturday evening, the coast guard said that "at this stage, 45 migrants in total, all men, have been rescued in Lampedusa".
"The search continues to find any missing with two coastguard speedboats, with air support from a helicopter."
Lots of boats reported on Friday
The migrants were heard screaming for help in the dark as life jackets and buoyancy aids were thrown into the sea early on Saturday, a coast guard video showed.
"The operation of this night intervened at the end of a particularly intense day because of the report of a significant number of boats carrying migrants" Friday, had indicated Saturday morning the coast guard.
In recent hours, 102 adrift migrants, including eight women and one child, have also been rescued in the Mediterranean.
They will land in Sicily on Sunday, according to NGOs on the spot.
In 2020 alone, a total of 1,064 deaths were counted by the United Nations in the central and western part of the Mediterranean.
