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Sfax. Up to 270 migrants were missing off the Tunisian coast after a ship headed for Italy packed with refugees capsized and there was little hope they would be found alive, authorities said on Thursday.

Some 600 people were lifted off the overcrowded vessel after it ran aground near Tunisia's Kerkennah islands on Wednesday, but by Thursday hopes of finding more survivors looked grim as poor weather blocked the rescue effort.

"The waves have blocked the start of operations. At best, Saturday morning, we could be able to recover the bodies," Tahar Landoulsi, the head of the coast guard at the port city of Sfax, told AFP.

"The missing have little chance of being found alive," one person participating in the rescue mission near Sfax said.

Earlier Thursday, authorities reported two bodies were recovered from the scene while seven injured people, including two pregnant women, were taken to hospital in Sfax.

The coastguard said the vessel had been packed with refugees from the conflict in neighboring Libya and was on its way to the Italian island of Lampedusa when it went aground.

It struck a sandbank some 19 nautical miles (36 kilometres) off the coast of the islands, and then capsized as people struggled to leave the boat to jump into rescue vessels, the TAP news agency reported.

The accident was mainly caused by strong winds and the weight of the passengers on the massively overloaded boat, TAP reported.
Around 200 of those rescued were being taken to a refugee camp at Choucha in the south.

Tunisian authorities said many of the refugees on board were from sub--Saharan Africa, including 200 Nigerians who were rescued.
Those saved include nine children, 91 women and 480 men according to authorities.

Italy has faced a massive influx of refugees since the fall of the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia in January and the outbreak of violence in neighboring Libya.

Thousands of immigrants have fled to the small island of Lampedusa located between Sicily and Tunisia.

Italy says around 40,000 have arrived on its coasts since the start of the year and some Italian officials have called on other European governments to help care for the massive influx of refugees, calling it a European problem.

Several boat accidents have occurred, usually the result of overcrowding.

On April 6 at least 150 Somali and Eritrean refugees died when their boat sank after leaving Libya.

On Wednesday Malta's army rescued a boat carrying 76 refugees fleeing the city of Misrata, under siege by forces loyal to strongman Muammar el-Qaddafi.

The UN estimates about 1,200 people have died or gone missing after attempting to flee the war--torn country by sea.

In total, it says about 893,000 people have left Libya since the popular uprising began in February.

AFP