At least 27 people, including a newborn baby, have died after a boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Italy.

The tragedy occurred 14 miles south of the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday, with the search for those  still missing continuing into the night.

Twenty bodies, including six found under the capsized boat, have already been recovered, local media has reported. The news comes as Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has a 'machete' pulled on him as he's chased out of a migrant camp.

Sixty survivors were brought to a centre in Lampedusa, Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR spokesperson in Italy, said.

It is understood there were between 92 and 97 migrants on board the boat when it departed Libya on Tuesday evening.

How many people died?

The coast guard said in a statement that the death toll stood at 27, but was still "provisional and being updated".

Based on survivor accounts, the migrants left the coast of Tripoli on two boats.

However, when one of the two vessels started to take on water, all the passengers were transferred to the other boat — made of fibreglass — which then capsized because of overloading.

'Deep anguish'

It wasn't immediately known how long the migrants had been at sea. Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino said that the shipwreck happened "presumably at dawn".

So far this year, 675 migrants have died making the perilous central Mediterranean crossing, not counting the latest sinking, according to the UN refugee agency.

"Deep anguish over yet another shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors," Mr Ungaro said on X.

How are migrants reaching Italy?

In the first six months of 2025, 30,060 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea, a 16 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, according to UNHCR.

The migration route from northern Africa to southern Europe is considered one of the most dangerous in the world.

Almost 24,500 people have died or disappeared on the Mediterranean crossing in the past decade.

Most of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.

The deadliest shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa occurred in October 2013, when a boat carrying over 500 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana caught fire and capsized, killing at least 368 people.

'Address the root causes of this tragic problem'

The tragedy prompted international calls for action to address the crisis.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni — who made combating illegal immigration a top priority of her right-wing government — pledged on Wednesday to continue fighting "unscrupulous traffickers" by preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows.

"That today's tragedy occurred despite a ready and operational international response warns us that the necessary rescue effort is not sufficient and, above all, does not address the root causes of this tragic problem," Meloni said in a statement.