More than 500 people fleeing the crisis in Libya, crammed into a single fishing boat, were rescued by Italy’s coast guard yesterday as their vessel foundered, officials said.

“We’ve just helped hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans to shore. The exact number is not clear yet, but identity checks are already under way,” the coast guard spokesman of the southern Lampedusa island, Vittorio Alessandro said.

Coast guard captain Cosimo Nicastro said: “Five hundred people have disembarked so far but others are still on board. There could be up to 700 people in total.”

Health checks were being carried out on the new arrivals as aid workers rushed to help an eight-months pregnant woman whose waters had just broken.

There were several pregnant women on board and others with new-born babies, the coast guard said.

“They say they set out from Tripoli two days ago at five in the morning. They took advantage of a break in the bad weather, but the wind is picking up again and by this evening the seas will be rough again,” Mr Alessandro said.

The overcrowded fishing boat was leaning dangerously and was drifting off course when the coast guard intervened to tow it to safety, Lampedusa’s port authority said, according to Ansa news agency.

Had they not been intercepted, the boat would have drifted on towards Sicily but would most likely have sunk before reaching the shore as the weather turned bad once more, the authorities said.