Horrific scenes unfolded in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya on Saturday as rescuers pulled 2,400 asylum-seekers to safety and recovered 14 dead bodies from the sea, the Italian coastguard said.

The asylum-seekers were on rubber boats and other small vessels, it said in a statement. Some 20 operations were carried out on Saturday alone, including rescues involving an Irish naval ship and boats from humanitarian groups Doctors Without Borders and Sea Watch.

Rescuers had limited resources as they struggled to rescue the stricken refugees. According to reports, 25 asylum-seekers aboard rubber boats dived into the water to swim towards the Siem Pilot vessel, which was already full to capacity. With migrants crying out for help, the captain was forced to pull back to deter others on the dinghy from doing the same.

Doctors Without Borders said in a tweet on Saturday it believed 12 people had died during rescue operations, four of them children.

More than 3,100 migrants have gone missing or died this year while trying to use the route from north Africa to Europe by boat, the International Organization for Migration estimates.