People gather along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea during a search for victims after a migrant boat capsized in Al Beheira, Egypt, Wednesday (Reuters photo)

BURG RASHID, Egypt — A boat carrying almost 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast on Wednesday, killing at least 43, in the latest disaster among migrants trying to reach Europe. Local officials said 150 of the 600 had been rescued, describing it as one of the largest operation off Egypt's coast in the Mediterranean refugee crisis so far. The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants, security sources told the Reuters news agency. It was not immediately clear where the boat that sank on Wednesday was headed, though some security sources said they believed it was going to Italy. Earlier that month, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the Greek island of Crete and the bodies 104 migrants washed up on a beach in Libya. Migrants who survived had told authorities their boat set sail from Egypt

Some 206,400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
A migrant boat carrying some 600 passengers capsizes off the coast of Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, killing at least 52 people, with hundreds more missing.