🔗 Share this article Scores Lost Following Craft Transporting Two Hundred Migrants Capsizes in waters off the Gambian coast. The shipwrecked vessel was found aground on a sandbank, officials report. A minimum of seven souls have perished and many others remain unaccounted for following a vessel ferrying approximately 200 people attempting to reach Europe overturned near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, reports confirm. The boat overturned late Wednesday night in the vicinity of the village of Jinack in the North Bank area and it was subsequently discovered "grounded on a sandbank", the country's defence ministry stated in a release. 96 individuals were pulled to safety and a hunt is ongoing for other passengers who were on board the sunken boat that was en route to Spain's Canary Islands. The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic Ocean has grown into a more frequent path for African asylum seekers trying to reach Europe. Nearly forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Spanish archipelago in last year and data indicates in excess of nine thousand individuals have lost their lives during the journey. Ongoing Mission Following the Wednesday incident, The Gambian Navy launched a search-and-rescue operation, deploying a number of military boats and a fishing boat that came to assist, the defense officials reported. Reports indicate a number of those who died are foreign nationals and that their details are still being checked. The bodies of the seven individuals who perished at sea were found, and ten of the survivors are said to be in serious condition and getting immediate medical attention. An Established Corridor This West African nation is one of the routes utilized by migrants trying to reach Europe, often on hazardous voyages across ocean and terrain. Over the past few years, the European bloc has reached agreements with a number of North African countries aimed at curtailing irregular migration.