At least 130 migrants feared drowned in the Mediterranean after bodies were found floating near a capsized inflatable boat.  

Three merchant vessels and a French charity SOS Mediterranee launched a search and rescue mission for the boats in international waters northeast of the Libyan city of Tripoli.

The charity spokesman said the civil hotline Alarm Phone had reported three boats were in distress on Wednesday in the Mediterranean. 

When the rescue ships arrived on the scene “in very rough seas, with up to 6-metre waves”, it did not find any survivors but there were ten bodies in the water nearby. 

Another wooden boat was still missing with about 40 migrants aboard, the charity spokesman said. 

The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said that the latest deaths would bring the tally for the central Mediterranean route to close to 500 people this year, more than triple the toll for the same period of 2020.

Libya, a failed state divided by civil conflict for years, is a major route for migrants seeking to reach Europe.