At least seven people drowned Tuesday when a boat sank where the Nile River empties into the Mediterranean in northern Egypt, police told the German Press Agency dpa.
Police said they believed the boat may have been carrying some 100 people trying to reach Italy without immigration papers.
Search and rescue operations were underway at the scene in Kafr al-Sheikh province, police said.
The Land Centre for Human Rights in Cairo estimates that thousands of migrants have drowned trying to reach Europe in recent years, and that thousands more have been deported after trying to immigrate to European countries illegally.