The Tunisian coastguard cast doubt yesterday on a report that the bodies of 150 migrants were recovered from -the sea after their boat capsized.

“We recovered only two bodies yesterday (and) we suspended search operations because of bad weather,” coastguard director Lotfi Baili said.

Earlier yesterday in Geneva, the International Organisation for Migration, citing the Tunisian Red Crescent, said 150 mainly sub-Saharan African migrants had drowned and a recovery operation was underway.

Moez Barkallah, a Red Crescent doctor in Sfax, where the bodies were reportedly taken, said that 123 bodies had been transferred to a morgue at the hospital there.

But when asked about the official denial, Mr Barkallah said the initial Red Crescent report was not based on “official information” and that he had not seen the bodies at the morgue himself.

Between 200 and 270 migrants fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Libya went missing on Thursday off of Tunisia, while nearly 600 others were rescued alive after their boat capsized.

The vessel had been packed with refugees and was on its way to the Italian island of Lampedusa when it ran aground.

It struck a sandbank some 36 kilometres off the coast of the Italian islands, and then capsized as people struggled to leave the boat to jump into rescue vessels, Tunisia’s TAP news agency reported.

Some 600 people were rescued, but, as of Thursday, up to 270 were missing and rescue workers said there was little hope of finding more survivors.