At least 88 people, including a pregnant woman and two children, died when a boat capsized and caught fire off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard told CNN on Thursday.
Coast guards were able to save at least 163 people, and the rescue operation is ongoing.
Lampedusa's boat people: One man's story
The boat is thought to have been carrying up to 500 people aboard.
The tiny island off the coast of Sicily was in the news this summer when the pope went there to pray for refugees and migrants lost at sea.
During his visit there in July, Pope Francis criticized what he called "global indifference" to the island's refugee crisis.
In recent years, the Italian Coast Guard says it has been involved in the rescue of more than 30,000 refugees around the island.
Lampedusa is just 113 kilometers (70 miles) from Tunisia and has been the first point of entry to Europe for more than 200,000 refugees and irregular migrants who have passed through the island since 1999.
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