Rome 5 Oct (ANA) - More than 20 migrants are said to have suffocated in the hold of an overloaded boat off the Libyan coast. A photographer who was able to board the stricken wooden vessel said more than 1,000 migrants had been crammed aboard. They were among at least 28 migrants who died in the area on Tuesday, while some 4,655 people were rescued. The total number rescued over the past two days is more than 10,000, while the death toll is at least 50. Smugglers have taken advantage of calm weather to push more boats out to sea. Aris Messinis, a photographer for the French AFP news agency, said many of the dead aboard one particular boat had suffocated. He said: "It was a wooden vessel and there were about 1,000 people on three levels. I counted 22 bodies and there are still others in the hold." Mr Messinis's graphic images showed the bodies of dead young men and women, piled on top of one another on the deck of a dinghy and in the cramped hold of a wooden boat. On Monday, 6,055 migrants were rescued - one of the highest numbers in a single day - and 22 found dead, Italian and Libyan officials said. One Italian ship rescued about 725 migrants from a single rubber boat, the coastguard said - just one of 20 rescue operations that day. Relatively calm weather is contributing to a surge in the number of people attempting to make the crossing before the cold weather sets in.(ANA)

FA/ANA/5 October 2016-------