ROME - At least six migrants have died and 40 were missing after a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, a spokesperson for the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.

The Italian coastguard said separately it intervened after being alerted to a rubber dinghy in distress on Tuesday, finding 10 survivors and six bodies. The coastguard said search and rescue efforts were continuing on Wednesday.

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With bad weather making operations more difficult, the coastguard said it was being supported by aircraft supplied by the army and the police, as well as the European Union's border agency Frontex.

A UNHCR spokesperson said survivors told rescuers that many among a group of 56 migrants - from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali - fell into the water due to bad weather a few hours after setting off from the Tunisian city of Sfax.

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The rescued migrants were being assisted in Lampedusa by the UNHCR and its partner agency the International Rescue Committee (IRC), while the Italian Red Cross was providing psychological support, the spokesperson added.

Lampedusa sits in the Mediterranean between Tunisia, Malta and the larger Italian island of Sicily and is a first port of call for many migrants seeking to reach the EU from North Africa, one of the world's deadliest sea crossings.

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More than 66,600 sea migrants arrived in Italy last year, fewer than half of the 2023 figure, and around 9,000 have reached Italian shores so far this year, according to figures from the Italian interior ministry.