By Massimiliano Di Giorgio
ROME (Reuters) - At least 92 people died and scores were missing after a boat packed with up to 500 African migrants sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, the coastguard said.
Bodies fished from the water were laid out along the quayside as the death toll rose in what looked like one of the worst disasters to hit the perilous route for migrants seeking to reach Europe from Africa.
"It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini told reporters.
The coastguard said 150 survivors had been rescued so far of the between 400 and 500 migrants thought to be on the 20-metre (66 ft) boat that caught fire and sank about 1 km (half a mile) off the island.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it believed there were around 500 passengers, all Eritreans who had boarded in Libya.
