PALERMO, Italy: Survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Libya in which some 200 migrants were feared drowned arrived in Sicily on Thursday, as tales emerged of the “horrific” moment the boat overturned.

Their fishing boat, believed to have been carrying more than 600 people, ran into difficulty about 15 nautical miles off Libya on Wednesday and tipped over when rescuers neared, after frantic migrants rushed to one side in their desperation to be saved.

Irish patrol vessel Niamh, first on the scene of the disaster, arrived in Palermo with 367 survivors, including 12 women and 13 children, as well as 25 bodies recovered from the sea.

Red Cross workers were ready to hand out water and shoes to those disembarking, while tents had been set up along the portside in Palermo to provide shade from the blazing sun and privacy for health checks.

Ambulances were on hand, and three vehicles waited to collect the bodies of those who drowned in the disaster.

The Italian coast guard told AFP the search for survivors “continued throughout the night and will be carried out all day today.”

“The sea is warm so they can survive longer, and there’s hope they might still find someone alive,” Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Italy, told AFP.

Six other survivors in need of urgent medical attention, including a feverish one-year-old baby and a man with a broken leg, had been transported by helicopter to the Italian island of Lampedusa late Wednesday, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

It is not the first time a boat making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean has overturned because of sudden movement onboard when help is in sight.

Many migrants cannot swim, making it a race against time for rescue workers trying to pull them from the water.

“It was a horrific sight, people desperately clinging to lifebelts, boats and anything they could, fighting for their lives, amidst people drowning, and those who had already died,” said Juan Matias, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The MSF boat Dignity One was the second vessel on the scene and helped rescue panicking children and adults from the water. It was delayed, however, by being diverted en route to help another boat in trouble with 94 people aboard.

“The fact that we were first called to assist this boat and then shortly afterwards sent to another one highlights the severe lack of resources available for rescue operations,” Matias said.