Rescuers save 86 migrants from boat near Canary Isles

Spain's coastguard said it rescued 86 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa aboard a boat near the Canary Islands that had been spotted earlier in the day by a rescue plane.

The coastguard service found the boat with six females and 80 males on board as rescuers were searching for a missing migrant boat that had "left Senegal with around 200 people on board". It did not indicate the ages of those rescued.

When a rescue plane spotted the vessel about 71 nautical miles south of the island of Gran Canaria, it was initially thought to have "around 200 people on board", a spokeswoman said.  But the coastguard later acknowledged that the estimate by the plane's crew was incorrect. 

Helena Maleno, head of Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, which helps migrant boats in distress, said a vessel had left the southern Senegalese town of "Kafountine on June 27 with approximately 200 people on board".

She said the NGO knew of two other boats with around 120 people on board that were also missing after leaving Senegal on June 23.