Over 100 migrants are feared missing after a boat they were travelling on capsized off the coast of Libya.

Four people were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian coastguard when the boat overturned on Saturday just 30 miles from the Libyan coast.

Eight migrants are already confirmed to have died, but the overall death toll is feared to be much higher, according to the coastguard.

Those who were rescued told authorities that they were part of a group larger than 100 that had been travelling.

Both French and Italian rescue teams are involved in the operation to locate the missing migrants.

In the past 24 hours alone, around 750 migrants have been saved from rubber and wooden boats in the central Mediterranean, authorities say.

The nationalities of those involved in the latest capsizing are unknown.

Last year, a record 181,000 boat migrants, mostly from Africa, reached Italy, according to government figures.

The majority paid Libyan people traffickers to make the journey.

Last year was also the deadliest on record for migrants in the Mediterranean, with almost 5,000 deaths, according to the International Organization for Migration.