The Italian authorities are searching for five illegal immigrants believed drowned after the rubber dinghy taking them from Albania to the southern Italian coast collided with another boat.

Two bodies were recovered after the incident.

Nine other occupants of the boat swam to safety on a nearby oil platform.

It is the latest in a series of fatal accidents involving people trying to enter Italy.

In the last few days alone six-hundred illegal immigrants were found along the southern Italian coast.

Most were Kurds and ethnic Albanians but police say some were from as far away as Pakistan and Somalia.

Aid organisations in southern Italy are calling the situation an emergency.