233 asylum seekers have been rescued from a boat, just ten metres long, in the Mediterranean Sea.

The migrants, mostly from African countries, were rescued late last night by the Italian Navy just off the island of Sicily.

Hundreds of asylum seekers died in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean last year as people tried to escape the conflicts in Syria and the Horn of Africa.

366 migrants from Eritrea died in a shipwreck close to Lampedusa last October.