ROME – As many as 800 bodies are likely to be recovered from a shipwrecked migrant boat, which sank on April 18, according to Catania prosecutor, Giovanni Salvini. The wreck was found by an Italian Navy search operation in the Mediterranean.

 The disaster took place around 80 miles northeast of the Libyan coastline and has been described as the worst tragedy in the Straight of Sicily since World War II. Official estimates as to the death toll vary with Italian prosecutors saying it will be almost impossible to produce a figure. According to the captain of a Portuguese merchant vessel, which was sent to aid rescue effort, as many as 850 migrants could have perished.