Some 300 migrants are believed to have died after a total of four smugglers’ vessels — described a rubber dinghies — overturned in rough waters in a sea region surrounding the central Mediterranean isle of Lampedusa.

UNHCR has confirmed the deaths of 232 people.

According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, which cites statements by nine survivors rescued by an Italian tugboat, the dead are calculated at 300.

“We saw over 200 dead people in the second vessel,” said some of the survivors.

Smugglers reportedly loaded the would-be migrants from Libya in a bid to land somewhere on EU territory.