At least 16 illegal immigrants drowned early today when their boat capsized on a reef off Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands, officials said.
"Sixteen bodies have been recovered," a Civil Guard police official said from the Canary Islands.
Officials did not rule out that more may have died in the latest episode of migrants from Africa dying at sea in an attempt to seek a better life in Europe.
"The boat was nearing the beach when a wave drove it onto the reef and it capsized, tipping all its occupants into the sea. Nine were rescued," the government's representative on the island Ramon Paniagua told Spanish state radio.
State television showed images of a holed boat and bodies being carried up a beach on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands off the west coast of Morocco.
Thousands of people, mainly Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans, try to enter Spain illegally every year, often risking their lives in fragile, overcrowded boats. A Moroccan immigrants association estimates 4,000 have died in the attempt in recent years.