AT least 26 people are dead and a dozen missing after a packed migrant boat capsized off Italy’s Lampedusa island.

Sixty survivors were pulled from the water and taken to a Lampedusa reception centre, with four rushed to hospital, according to the Italian Red Cross and UN agencies.

The disaster struck early Wednesday when an Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted the overturned vessel and bodies in the water around 14 miles from Lampedusa.

Five ships, two aircraft and a helicopter were deployed in the ongoing search for more survivors.

The coastguard said the death toll remains “provisional and being updated.”

Survivor accounts suggest between 92 and 97 people were on board when the boat departed Libya.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the group originally set off on two vessels from the Tripoli area.

When one began taking on water, all passengers were crammed into a fibreglass boat which later capsized in international waters due to overloading.

“It is not immediately known how long the migrants had been at sea,” Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino said, adding the tragedy happened “presumably at dawn.”