A boat carrying African migrants heading to Europe has capsized off the Mediterranean coast near the Egyptian city of Alexandria, killing at least 20 people, authorities said.

Health ministry official Alaa Osman, from Beheira province, said that 155 people have been rescued, but that bodies are still being found in the area.

The migrants were from several African countries, he said.

The boat had been carrying 600 people, Egypt's official news agency MENA said.

Thousands of illegal migrants have made the dangerous sea voyage across the Mediterranean in recent years, fleeing war and poverty, mostly via lawless Libya. Thousands have drowned.

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