Up to seven people are missing and six, including two Italian Navy personnel, have been hospitalised with burns after a migrant trafficking boat caught fire and exploded in the Mediterranean.
The Guardian's correspondent Lorenzo Tondo reported the accident off the southern Italian coast near the city of Crotone in Calabria on Sunday afternoon as the naval vessel was trying to rescue passengers on the boat.
"Four miles from the coast, something caught fire and the boat exploded, causing serious damage. It’s a tragic situation," Red Cross commissioner Francesco Pascuzzo said.
It was initially thought a fuel leak on the boat caused the fire as the navy ship was transferring its occupants aboard.
A plume of dark smoke from the burning boat was visible to people on the beach at Crotone.
It was reported that an aircraft was searching for survivors.
Meanwhile the Italian coastguard evacuated 450 migrants from a heavily-overloaded boat at risk of capsizing in high winds near the small Italian island of Lampedusa in the mid-Mediterranean.
Another 500 illegal immigrants had reached Lampedusa in small boats in the preceding 24 hours, prompting an ultimatum to the government from Mayor Salvatore Martello.
"We’re on our knees," Martello said. "The situation is unbearable. Either the government has to take immediate decisions, or the entire island will go on strike."
The tragic incident comes just days after a former french navy patrol boat owned by British graffiti artist Banksy to rescue migrants from the Mediterranean itself had to be rescued by the Italian coastguard.