Two people died and five were missing after a boat sank off Sfax in eastern Tunisia transporting some 15 migrants, most of them Tunisians, the public prosecutor said.
"The prosecutor of the republic was informed at around 5 am about the sinking of a boat carrying 16 people intending to sail stealthily to Italy," Mourad Turki, the first assistant undersecretary-general at the Sfax Court of Appeal, said in a statement.
He confirmed two bodies had been recovered and nine people were rescued.
"Five people are missing and are being sought," the statement said.
In July, the National Guard recovered 90 migrants who sailed from Tunisia to Italy, including about 20 women and three infants from sub-Saharan Africa.
In recent weeks, dozens of immigrants who have been trying to reach Italy from Tunisia have been intercepted and others drowned.
Thousands of young Tunisians risk unemployment and lack of employment prospects every year to cross the Mediterranean illegally.
