Three people have drowned and six more were missing in the Mediterranean Sea, the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday.

The deadly incidents were the latest to hit refugees attempting the treacherous sea crossing from north Africa to Europe.

Three people died and two more were washed away when their inflatable dinghy approached a Maltese oil tanker coming to their aid, emergency services said.

In a separate incident, four migrants from the Central African Republic fell from a rope ladder connecting a merchant ship with their stricken vessel and were swept away, according to the ship's captain.

Migrants at the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, after being picked up by Italian naval ships while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Photograph: Antonio Parrinello/Reuters

Two suspected smugglers were arrested after arriving with rescued refugees at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.



The incidents follow the arrival of 2,000 migrants in Italy on Monday after an international operation to rescue refugees packed into 25 boats travelling from Libya.

Rome says more than 50,000 migrants have landed in Italy by sea so far this year, a similar number to those who arrived in all of 2013.