The UN refugee agency says more than 700 migrants may have drowned in Mediterranean Sea in recent days.

The news comes as Italian authorities say 13,000 people have been rescued from the waters of  in the last week.

668 were saved yesteday alone, 347 of them by the Irish naval vessel the LÉ Róisín.

However it is feared that we do not know the extent of the death toll in the Mediterranean, as some boats sink undetected.

Earlier, 19 people who are believed to have been attempting to reach Britain were rescued from the English Channel after an inflatable boat they were in started taking on water off the Kent coast.