Italian rescue vessels on Wednesday were searching for 40 people reported missing after the shipwreck of a migrant-boat in the Strait of Sicily off the Tunisian coast on Tuesday.

Italian Coast Guard and finance police patrol boats on Tuesday rescued 10 survivors from a half-sunken dinghy and took them to the island of Lampedusa and they also recovered six dead bodies.

The survivors said the departed from Sfax, Tunisia, in a rubber dinghy with 56 people on board on Sunday night.

Many of the migrants fell into the water during the crossing amid rough seas, they said.