Nouakchott: At least 45 African migrants have died of cold and thirst after their boat ran aground in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach Europe, a Mauritanian security official said today.

Mauritanian soldiers who discovered the beached vessel yesterday also found 98 survivors aboard the boat, which had set sail from Senegal some 20 days ago, trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands.

Of those survivors, six were in a coma and two died during the night at a hospital in Mauritania's second city of Nouadhibou. Four others were in a critical condition.

According to the official, the dead were "victims of cold, thirst and hunger and (they) were thrown overboard by the survivors".

The group left Senegal s southern city of Ziguinchor on October 16 and a week ago, the boat s engine broke down off Morocco. Currents and winds drove it aground at Laguerra, on Mauritania s border with Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

A Red Cross official reached by phone from the capital confirmed the survivors were extremely tired.

"We are helping with feeding, medicine and with hospital care," a local Red Cross official Mohamed Ould Hamada told AFP.

Local administrative officials said the migrants were mainly from Senegal, with a few from Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia.

An unknown number of migrants die every year trying to reach the Canaries. In July, 50 perished after their boat capsized near the island of Tenerife.

Source : PTI