AKIPRESS.COM - More than 100 migrants and refugees are feared drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya's coast in the Mediterranean Sea, aid agencies said on Thursday, Aljazeera reports.

Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya's coast guard, told The Associated Press that two boats carrying around 300 migrants sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 migrants and refugees were rescued.

However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.

"The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.