Spanish coastguard boats have stopped searching for more than 50 immigrants who were lost at sea after their boat capsized south of the Canary Islands this week, a government source has said.
About 100 Africans were trying to migrate to Europe in a long, open-topped wooden boat when it was hit by a huge wave before dawn on Thursday.
The Spanish coastguard, who had just drawn alongside the boat, managed to rescue 48 survivors but the rest were believed lost in rough seas about 89 nautical miles southwest of the resort island of Tenerife.
Since then, two merchant ships, four coast guard vessels, a helicopter and a plane have been involved in the search for any survivors.
A source at the national government's office in the Canary Islands said the last search vessels returned to shore on Saturday but that they had left a radio device that would continue to look for any signs of life at the shipwreck site.
Authorities believe thousands of Africans died last year attempting to reach the Canaries, hundreds of miles from the African coast. Most disappeared at sea without trace, bodies sometimes washing up days later on African shores.
About 31,000 migrants made it to the Canaries last year, making illegal immigration one of Spain's main political issues.
Illegal arrivals have fallen off sharply since the government stepped up repatriations and the European Union started maritime patrols.