A crewless ship with approximately 450 migrants aboard was spotted drifting in rough seas off the coast of Italy in the morning of Friday, only two days after 1,000 migrants were rescued from the Blue Sky M ship.

As the ship could only be boarded from the air due to adverse weather conditions, the Italian authorities sent a helicopter which lowered coastguard officers onto the deck of the Ezadeen.

The men of the coastguard managed to take hold of the ship and rescue the migrants.

This is the latest in a long series of maritime incidents, that involve migrants who have been left to die by smugglers in rough sea.