At least 82 migrants have been killed after a boat carrying some 500 people caught fire and capsized near a Sicilian island.

At least 82 passengers died of a refugee boat in the Mediterranean. This was announced Giusi Nicolini, Mayor of Lampedusa, with. “It’s terrible, terrible, they do not cease to bring new bodies,” Nicolini said. With about 500 people on board the ship was sunk off the coast of the Italian island. Among the dead are supposed to be, according to the news agency Ansa several children.

The ship with mainly Somali refugees caught fire near the small neighboring island of Isola Conigli and had set. Hundreds of refugees tried to stay afloat, while Coast Guard and other rescue workers rushed to their aid. A spokesman for the coastguard said about 160 people had been rescued from the water, but there were not any passengers in safety.

About 150 people have been pulled from the water off Lampedusa, as emergency workers race to rescue more survivors.

Mayor Giusi Nicolini said the dead included a young child and pregnant woman.

“The survivors are in a state of shock. They have been in the water since the early hours of the morning,” Ms Nicolini told news channel SkyTG24.

Ms Nicolini said the migrants – believed to be from Eritrea and Somalia –  had told her they lit a small fire on their boat around half a mile from the shore to attract the attention of coast guards after their vessel suffered engine failure.

The fire then spread, causing panic on board which caused the boat to flip over, she said.

Local police were quoted as saying they believed the boat had left from Libyan shores.

Shaken survivors wrapped in thermal blankets arrived on the dock, as an emergency worker broke down in tears.

“The first assistance was provided by people on pleasure boats who heard the screams,” Antonino Candela, a local emergency medical worker said.

Officials said the bodies were being taken to an airport hangar because of the large numbers.

Prosecutors have already opened an inquiry for multiple murder.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident “an immense tragedy” in a tweet.

Lampedusa is an Italian island lying between Tunisia and Sicily and is a major entryway for asylum-seekers into the European Union, with thousands arriving every year.

There has been an increase in the incidents off Italy in recent weeks amid an upsurge in arrivals – mainly from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Syria.

On Monday, 13 Eritrean migrants drowned as they tried to swim ashore when their boat ran aground off Sicily near the city of Ragusa.

In a similar incident near Catania in another part of Sicily in August, six young Egyptian men drowned trying to reach the shore.

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