Italian authorities searched Thursday for migrants missing at sea after two crowded boats sank off the island of Lampedusa, killing at least 27 people.

As many as a dozen or more people are still unaccounted for following Wednesday's disaster, according to testimony from among the 60 survivors, mostly from Somalia.

Three minors, including a newborn baby, and seven women and 13 men were among the dead, according to the prosecutor's office in Agrigento, on Sicily.

Post-mortem examinations confirmed that those 23 died of drowning, according to the ANSA news agency. UN officials said 27 people were confirmed dead so far.

The two boats had left Tripoli, Libya, earlier on Wednesday, Italy's coastguard said.

It is believed one of the boats started taking on water, causing people to climb ont

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