Charities have been quick to respond to the tragedy. John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia, says: "What we are witnessing in the Mediterranean is a man-made tragedy of appalling proportions. These latest deaths at sea come as a shock, but not a surprise.

"Whilst merchant vessels and their crews have bravely attempted to fill the gap left by the chronic shortfall in specialist search and rescue teams, they are not designed, equipped or trained for maritime rescue. It is time for European governments to face their responsibilities and urgently set up a multi-country concerted humanitarian operation to save lives at sea."

Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca says in the Times of Malta, external that the island, a destination for many migrants crossing the Mediterranean, cannot look at migration as a "bogeyman".

"There are no easy solutions to migration. It's no longer just about war. In today's world people are on the move, just like our own children are going abroad to better themselves.

"If it were us - if we had to leave home for a chance at life with human dignity - wouldn't we take that chance?"

Image source, AP

This is the holding centre where migrants are taken to on the island of Lampedusa. Hundreds of migrants have drowned this month trying to reach Europe, even before this latest sinking.

Comandante Filippo Marini of the Italian coast guard has told the BBC that rescue operations are still ongoing, with 28 survivors rescued so far. Some of them are now on a merchant ship and others are on a coastguard ship. There have been 24 bodies rescued from the sea so far, which are on the Gregoretti coastguard vessel. It is not yet known where the bodies and survivors will be taken.

Image source, Reuters

Mr Hollande also said there was an urgent need to increase the amount of patrol boats and of aerial surveillance flights. In an interview on the Canal+ channel, he said: "Those who put people on boats are traffickers, even terrorists."

France's President Francois Hollande has called for an emergency meeting of European interior and foreign ministers to address the situation with migrants. It is a call that has been repeated in Malta, which is taking part in the search and rescue operation.

One migrant who had arrived earlier on Lampedusa told the BBC team there that he was glad to have made the trip. "I thank God I am alive," he told us. "Africa now is not good. In Nigeria we are bring threatened by Boko Haram. That is why I risked it."

Image source, AP

This feature from earlier this week explains why the European Union is struggling to cope with the tide of migrants attempting to reach Europe from North Africa.

Image source, Maritime Connector

One of those ships involved in the operation is the King Jacob, a Portuguese-registered cargo ship. It was the first ship to reach the stricken boat - and also helped rescue, external 480 other migrants from the sea earlier in the week.

The BBC's Richard Bilton in Lampedusa says the Italian island is scrambling to react to the latest horror in the seas off its coastline.

Much of the harbour has emptied and coastguard, customs and fishing boats all left before dawn to help with the rescue.

It's still not clear whether the survivors will be brought back to Lampedusa. Staff at the small island hospital say they have not been told, our correspondent adds.

You can take a look at the area where the search and rescue operation is taking place here, external. About a dozen boats or ships have been circling an area north-east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, for the last few hours.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen says: "Yet again we have woken up to reports of another tragedy in the Mediterranean, which could bring the total number of migrants who've drowned just this year to a shocking 1,500.

"This is a Europe-wide crisis that needs a Europe-wide response."

Pope Francis went on to say: "Faced with such a tragedy, I express my most heartfelt pain and promise to remember the victims and their families in prayer."

Speaking in St Peter's Square in the Vatican this morning, Pope Francis called on authorities to take action to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

He said: "They are men and women like us, our brothers seeking a better life, starving, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war. They were looking for a better life."

The Italian coastguard says a major rescue operation is under way after the vessel carrying "between 500 and 700 migrants" capsized at midnight local time, in Libyan waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Welcome to our live coverage of the rescue operation to help survivors of a boat carrying migrants which has capsized in the Mediterranean. Hundreds are feared to have drowned.