Sixty-nine people drown as migrant boat capsizes off coast of Mauritania

Boats off Mauritania’s northern city of Nouadhibou, near where a migrant boat capsized after passengers spotted town lights. Photograph: Khaled Moulay/AP

Sixty-nine people drowned when a vessel full of migrants overturned off the coast of Mauritania earlier this week, coastguard officials said on Friday.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday after passengers on the boat spotted the lights of a coastal town about 50 miles (80km) north of the capital, Nouakchott, prompting the occupants to press to one side of the boat, causing it to capsize, Mohamed Abdallah, the head of the coastguard, told reporters.