The Maltese military has confirmed that the death toll has risen to 31 on the ship that capsized in international waters on Friday near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The Rescue Center of Malta, a branch of the Armed Forces of Malta, said that more than 200 survivors were pulled out from the water, but they still continued the search for more than a dozen people still believed missing, CNN reports.
Italian navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero said that the shipwreck occurred about 60 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, an island south of Sicily.
Maltese authorities said Italian military forces used helicopters and boats to pull out a significant number of the survivors from the life raft.