Italian coastguard vessels last night rescued 261 migrants from two boats in Libyan waters after they issued SOS calls but found no response from the Libyan authorities. 

The rescue was partly coordinated by the Armed Forces of Malta.

The AFM said this morning that 111 migrants were in a boat which started taking in water while it was just 35 miles off the Libyan coast. The second boat issued an SOS an hour later while it was 60 miles off Libya. It had 150 people on board.

Both boats were in rough seas.

According to Italian media, the migrants included 37 women, two of whom were pregnant.

They were picked up by Italian Coast Guard vessels from Lampedusa and an oil industry supply vessels. All were taken to Lampedusa.

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