Three known survivors after migrant boat with 86 on board sinks off Tunisia

Migrants regularly try to make perilous journeys across the Mediterranean in rickety boats Credit: AP

A boat carrying more than 86 migrants from Libya has sunk in the Mediterranean.

Just four people on board survived initially and 82 are missing, according to the UN migration agency.

The incident off the Tunisian city of Zarzis came a day after a deadly air strike on a Libyan detention centre that killed at least 44 migrants.

Tunisian fishermen came across the sinking boat and were able to pull out four men, but could not find any of the other passengers on the boat, said Lorena Lando, head of the International Organisation for Migration in Tunisia.

These migrants were rescued in May when their vessel sank off Zarzis, Tunisia. Credit: AP

One of the four, a man from the Ivory Coast, died and the other three remain in hospital.

Earlier this week, another boat from Libya made it to the Tunisian port of Sfax with 65 people on board.