LAMPEDUSA, Italy — Rescue vessels resumed a desperate search on Thursday for migrants missing at sea after two crowded boats sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, with 27 dead already confirmed.

Sixty people survived after two boats with nearly 100 migrants capsized. The causes of the shipwrecks were not clear, Italian officials and U.N. agencies said. The death toll is likely to grow.

ROME (AP) — A boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized Wednesday in international waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa, killing at least 20 people and leaving a dozen missing, the U.N. refugee agency and local officials said.