Eighty-two people have been reported missing after a boat carrying 86 migrants sank off the coast of Tunisia in the Mediterranean Sea.

Four men were reportedly pulled out alive from the sinking boat, nine miles from the town of Zarzis on Wednesday. One of those rescued, a man identified as an Ivorian national however died overnight.

Loreno Lando,  Head of the International Organization for Migration said some fishermen came across the sinking boat on Wednesday night and were able to pull four men from the vessel, adding that there  was no trace of the other passengers.

Those on board the vessel are believed to have been migrants who had departed from the Libyan city of Zuwara.