Fishing boats are searching for more bodies and possible survivors after a shipwreck off Libya on Thursday claimed the lives of more than 200 migrants.

Rescuers managed to pull out some 200 survivors on Thursday at around noon but many more are feared dead as the boat was thought to be carrying some 430 people.

The vessel sank after leaving Zuwara, a major launchpad for smugglers shipping migrants to Italy by exploiting a security vacuum in Libya where rival governments are fighting for control.

Lacking proper equipment, Libyan coastguard officials were searching for survivors, mostly Syrians, with fishing boats and inflatables provided by locals.

“The boat was in a bad condition and people died with us. We have been forced into this route,” said Ayman Talaal, a Syrian survivor, standing next to his daughter.

Local officials from the Libya Red Crescent and residents were putting bodies into bags on a beach littered with shoes, trousers and other personal items from drowned migrants. A blue inflatable brought in more bodies.

“We, the Red Crescent, work with nothing. Some fishermen help us with a boat,” said Ibrahim al-Attoushi, an official at the Red Crescent in Zuwara.

This is the second tragedy at sea in as many days.

The UN refugee agency says more than 2,500 people have died trying to reach Europe so far in 2015. More than 300,000 migrants have fled to reach Europe this year.