The lifeless body of a teenager is among the 24 migrant corpses lying in the morgue after nearly 800 people died off the coast of Libya on Sunday in the latest catastrophic shipwreck.

The young boy appeared to be no older than 14, and was from Somalia or Eritrea, sources within Mater Dei Hospital’s mortuary told this newspaper.

The unidentified minor was on a boat carrying around 850 migrants en route to Lampedusa before it capsized leaving just 28 survivors.

The youth was not the only young man brought back. The sources said the average age of the dead migrants brought to Malta was just around 24.

“These men were all quite young, fit and in their prime,” the sources said.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday tweeted that the migrants would be laid to rest collectively in an interfaith ceremony being held tomorrow morning.

The sea tragedy, the worst recorded in Europe since World War II, has turned the spotlight on the Mediterranean as European leaders grapple to address the calamitous situation.

Two men were yesterday arrested in Italy on suspicion of involvement in Sunday’s migrant boat disaster.

Arrested pair are believed to be the captain and mate

The men, identified as Mohammed Ali Malek, a 27-year-old Tunisian, and Syrian Mahmud Bikhit, 25, were among the 27 survivors sent to Sicily.

The two are believed to have acted as the captain – who has been charged with multiple homicide – and first mate respectively on the large boat.

Prosecutors said Malek steered the severely overloaded boat into a merchant ship that was coming to its rescue.

The two were picked up by the Italian patrol vessel Bruno Gregoretti and taken to Catania on Monday evening after stopping briefly in Malta.

They were identified by the survivors and another survivor, a Bangladeshi man, who was taken to Catania earlier and shown photographs.

The sources who spoke with Times of Malta said some of the migrants appeared to have died after struggling to get their head above water.

All had drowned and the bodies had developed foam around the mouth and nose, and bleeding from the ears – all signs consistent with this theory.

Preliminary checks seem to indicate that some of the migrants had likely been unable to swim and were dragged below the water’s surface by the weight of their drenched clothes.

Others, however, may have suffered a more unfortunate death, as they were brought to the mortuary wearing life jackets.

The sources, who have been involved in the forensic analysis, said some of the migrants may have been drowned by the very life jackets that should have saved their lives – if not worn properly life jackets can force the head into the water. “We have seen this before. The jackets are not worn properly and it can end up pushing your head in. If you are not a strong swimmer, which these migrants likely weren’t, it would be very difficult to get your head out of the water,” the sources said.

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca lays flowers at the mortuary where the dead migrants were being examined. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

In-depth analysis of the bodies was only possible yesterday morning as the corpses were previously being checked for infectious diseases after being brought to Malta.

The bodies have since been fingerprinted and will now be crosschecked with databases collected by different entities across North Africa. The Maltese authorities are hoping this process might help locate the dead migrants’ families.

President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday visited the mortuary where the dead migrants were being examined.

The building has been inundated with bouquets after hospital CEO Ivan Falzon appealed for people to express solidarity with the “unknown dead”.

Ms Coleiro Preca described the bouquets as a manifestation of Malta’s “compassionate soul”, which outweighed racist sentiments. She was referring to a number of unsavoury comments made on social media following the migrant tragedy.

These included some urging Maltese not to eat local fish as these would have been “dining” on the hundreds of “Ebola-infested” migrants.

A solemn Ms Coleiro Preca said those who had turned to messages of hate directed at migrants on social media were misguided, and formed a minority.