Twelve people were dead and 116 people were rescued after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on Friday, Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The people aboard the boat were mostly Syrian and Palestinian "illegal immigrants," the paper reported.

Those who were rescued -- 40 Syrians, 72 Palestinians and four Egyptians -- were taken to a naval base, Al-Ahram reported.