Spain’s maritime rescue service said on Saturday that a boat carrying 84 migrants capsized overnight in the Canary Islands, killing at least nine people.
After Tenerife’s rescue centre received an emergency call overnight from one of the people on the boat, Spain’s rescue service was deployed and managed to rescue 27 people.
Nine bodies were also recovered from the sea.
The rescue service said the boat capsized shortly after midnight four miles off El Herrio, one of the islands that make up the Canaries, when the migrants rushed to one side of the boat.
The search was hampered however by gusts of wind of about 20 knots and the darkness.
Rescue boats and helicopters have continued searching in the daylight for the 48 migrants who remain missing.
