A boat carrying 28 Tunisian immigrants capsized off Sabratha shores on Saturday. 12 of the migrants were rescued, 9 drowned bodies were picked out of sea water, while seven others are still missing, Tunisian law activists reported.

Most of the Tunisian migrants were from Ben Gardane district on the border with Libya, they set off from the south of Tunisia heading toward Libya, then they rented a boat to make the perilous journey to Europe, the activists added.

The boat took off for the journey at about 10.pm from Sabratha beach, but it drowned at about midnight, local Tunisian sources indicated, adding that the bodies of the nine drowned immigrants were identified and sent to Sabratha Hospital before they get transferred to Tunisia.

Search is under way for the missing persons, who have probably gone astray in the Libyan waters, while some of the rescued ones managed to return home, the sourced explained.