Navy officials in Italy have recovered 217 bodies from the hull of a migrant ship that sank off Libya last year in a tragedy which led to the EU beefing up Mediterranean rescue operations.

Italian authorities raised the ship from the seabed last week and have been working to remove and identify the bodies ever since.

In a statement, the navy said 52 post-mortem examinations had been carried out on the 217 bodies pulled out so far.

Some of the 28 survivors of the disaster on April 18 2015 wreck had said as many as 800 people were on board, leading officials to label it one of the worst tragedies of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Around 200 bodies were initially recovered, and, after officials saw the ship's dimensions, they suggested about 300 remained.

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