Tunisia’s coastguard yesterday confirmed it had seized 31 kilogrammes of pure cocaine valued at more than $6 million off its Mediterranean coast.

The cocaine seizure followed “suspicious movements” that were sighted on a boat off Cape Bon, a peninsula on the Strait of Sicily, Mohamed Walid Ben Ali, head of the coastguard in La Goulette near Tunis, told AFP.

Two men fled with the boat after hurling “a large red sack” into the sea that was recovered by coastguards and found to contain 30 blocks of pure cocaine.

This is the first time Tunisian authorities have bagged such a large haul of the drug, according to Lieutenant Colonel Ben Ali. Italian authorities had been alerted about the two escaping fugitives.