At least 26 people died in a migrant shipwreck on Wednesday off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa and 60 survivors were brought ashore, the coastguard said, warning more bodies could be missing as search operations continue.

Sixty people survived after two boats with nearly 100 migrants capsized. The causes of the shipwrecks were not clear, Italian officials and U.N. agencies said. The death toll is likely to grow.

At least 26 migrants died Wednesday when two boats sank off the coast of Italy's Lampedusa island, with around 10 others still missing, the coastguard and UN officials said.It was a helicopter from Italy's financial police that spotted a capsized boat and several bodies in the water on Wednesday,