REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ZUWARA -- At least 76 people have died after a ship carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees sank off the coast of Libya, the Libyan Red Crescent said Friday.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said as many as 200 people on two boats were feared dead near the western port of Zuwara.

"Until now 76 bodies have been retrieved from the sea and 198 people have been rescued," Libyan Red Crescent spokesman Mohammad al-Misrati told AFP.

"There are still people missing but we don't know how many," Misrati said, adding that the figures of dead and rescued came from the local Red Crescent branch, medical facilities in Zuwara and the Libyan coastguard.

In Geneva, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters that two boats carrying a total of 500 refugees and migrants had sunk.

"The Libyan coastguard carried out two rescue operations on Thursday morning ... off the port town of Zuwara," she said.

"We are hearing media reports that there are about 100 survivors. Our office in Libya is checking with the coastguard ... We believe 200 are still missing, feared dead."

Red Crescent teams wearing protective white clothing and masks on Friday collected bodies that had washed ashore on a Zuwara beach, placing them in orange plastic bags and carrying them to ambulances.

Seddik Said, head of a joint crisis team, told AFP at the scene that according to survivors around 400 people were on board the main vessel and another 60 on a smaller boat which sank on Wednesday.

"It's hard to get the right numbers. Even the number of dead people, we can only give the number of those we found dead," he said.

Said added that such grisly missions were now being carried out on a regular basis.

"Every week dozens of people die in front of this beach," he said.

One of the rescued migrants told AFP that he and two friends had each paid 2,200 Libyan dinars ($1,600) to board the boat.

Libya, with a coastline of 1,770 kilometres (more than 1,000 miles), has for years been a stepping stone for Africans seeking a better life in Europe, with most heading for Italy.

Conflicts across the Middle East, especially in Syria, have also made Libya a transit country for those fleeing violence in the region.

People smugglers have taken advantage of the chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi to step up their lucrative business.

The Mediterranean crossing is treacherous, and about 2,500 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe this year alone.

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