More than 20 dead in migrant shipwreck off Senegal

Rescuers pulled more than 20 bodies from the sea off northern Senegal on Wednesday after a boat loaded with migrants heading for Europe sank, a regional governor told AFP.

"A little more than 20 bodies" had been found, Saint-Louis regional governor Alioune Badara Samb said by telephone, adding that another 20 people had been saved.

Badara Samb did not say how many passengers were aboard the vessel but survivors told AFP that the number could have been in the hundreds.

Mamady Dianfo, from Casamance in the far south of the country, said there were about 300 passengers when the boat left Senegal a week ago.

Another survivor, Alpha Balde, spoke of 200 passengers.

Senegal's coasts are an increasingly common departure point for African migrants heading to the Spanish Canary Islands, their port of entry into Europe.