More than 400 migrants and refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to cross by boat from Egypt to Italy.

They are believed to be largely Somalis, with smaller numbers of Eritreans and Ethiopians.

The tragedy, if confirmed, comes exactly a year after the worst migrant disaster in the Mediterranean for decades.

Around 800 migrants and refugees, many of them locked into the hold, died when the 70ft-long boat they were crammed into capsized at sea.

Only those on the upper level had any chance of surviving when the vessel capsized, apparently after migrants rushed to one side of the ship when they saw a passing Portuguese merchant ship that they hoped was coming to rescue them

The migrants involved in Monday's tragedy were on board four boats, according to BBC Arabic, which broke the story.

One or more of the boats appears to have capsized at sea.

The Somali embassy in Cairo is trying to verify the reports, which have not yet been verified.

The vast majority of refugees and migrants who reach Italy by sea depart in old fishing boats and rubber dinghies from the coast of Libya, where chaos since the downfall of the Gadaffi regime has allowed people smuggling gangs to flourish.