According to Italian coastguard, more than 2,000 migrants were rescued from boats in the Mediterranean on Friday, as numbers soared for the third year running in the build up to summer.

Around 14,000 people were taken off often flimsy vessels over the whole week, the United Nations and the coastguard said, and hundreds may have drowned, survivors and boat crews added, though there are no official estimates of casualties.

Italian Navy ship Vega plucked about 130 people off a "half-submerged" large rubber boat - one of 17 operations coordinated by the coastguard on Friday. There were no details on how many were on board before it deflated.