Seventy-five people are missing after a crowded boat of migrants sank off Tunisia, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The IOM said 24 people had been rescued from the boat, which left from the beaches of Zawara in Libya and sank off the coast of Sfax.

A Tunisian security official told Reuters news agency that the coastguard had recovered a body.

In recent months, dozens of people have drowned off the Tunisian coast.

Hundreds of thousands of people have made the perilous Mediterranean crossing in recent years.

Figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed that more than 123,000 migrants arrived in Italy in 2021, compared to more than 95,000 in 2020.

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