A total of 102 bodies have so far been found after a boat carrying illegal migrants capsized off the Syrian shore, while 40 others were still missing, a war monitor reported on Sunday.

The Syrian authorities have rescued twenty people, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The boat, carrying up to 150 immigrants, set off from Lebanon on Tuesday and headed toward Europe. It sank near the shore of the Syrian coastal city of Tartous on Thursday, according to Syrian official statements.

(Cover: Members of Syrian Red Crescent work by a shoreline after a migrant boat, which according to Lebanese and Syrian officials, sank off the Syrian coast after sailing from Lebanon, in Tartous, Syria, September 24, 2022. /Reuters)