Over 80 missing in shipwreck off coast of Tunisia

Over 80 migrants went missing at sea following a shipwreck which occurred on Wednesday off the coast of Zarzis in Tunisia, Italian news agency ANSAmed reported on Thursday.

Only five people survived the incident, according to Alarm Phone, which announced the news on Twitter and attributed it to Chamseddine Marzoug, a Tunisian Red Crescent volunteer and activist .

Marzoug told ANSAmed that a rubber dinghy, which had departed from Libya, sunk on Wednesday off the coast of Zarzis. One of the five survivors, a man from the Ivory Coast, later died in hospital, he said.

Local authorities said the Tunisian Red Cross and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) are working in coordination with Tunisian authorities on search-and-rescue efforts at sea, together with some local fishing boats, the ANSAmed report said.

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