Around 250 feared dead after bodies found off Libya

ROME - More than 250 African migrants were feared drowned in the Mediterranean on Thursday after a charity's rescue boat found five corpses close to two sinking rubber dinghies off Libya.

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was "deeply alarmed" after the Golfo Azzuro, a boat operated by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, reported the recovery of the bodies close to the drifting, partially submerged dinghies, 24 kilometers off the Libyan coast.

"We don't think there can be any other explanation than that these dinghies would have been full of people," Proactiva spokeswoman Laura Lanuza said. "It seems clear that they sank."