Cristina Quicler, AFP | A Red Cross member assists migrants outside a gymnasium used as reception center on June 21.

At least 418 migrants were rescued in operations off the coast of Spain on Saturday, the country's national rescue service said.

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In the largest of the operations, 262 people on 15 vessels were rescued in the Strait of Gibraltar, Salvamento Maritimo said on Twitter.

Twenty-seven others were found in the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco and 129 more off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

Salvamar Menkalinán rescata 129 #personas de #cayuco costas #GranCanaria que desembarca en #Arguineguin. Salvamar Spica rescata 27 personas #patera #Alboran desembarcadas #Almeria. En las operaciones intervinieron helimer 211 y helimer 204. GRACIAS! buque Grande Halifax. pic.twitter.com/lOjS5nIYMN SALVAMENTO MARÍTIMO (@salvamentogob) June 23, 2018

Elsewhere, the world's leading container shipping company, the Danish Maersk Line, said one of its vessels rescued 113 migrants off the coast of southern Italy on Saturday.

The Alexander Maersk changed course after picking up a distress signal early on Friday, Mikkel Elbek Linnet, a spokesman at Maersk Line, told AFP.

He could neither specify where exactly the migrants were rescued nor when the stress signal was picked up.

The vessel is currently situated off the coast of the Sicilian town of Pozzallo and awaiting instructions from the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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