European Union foreign ministers gathered for an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the growing crisis as migrants flee instability in Libya, with hundreds feared dead from a smugglers' boat that capsized off the Libyan coast.

A survivor from the vessel has put the number of people on board at 950, an increase on the 700 initially feared dead on Sunday.

The survivor, identified as a 32-year-old Bangladeshi, was flown by helicopter to Catania in Sicily, where he was interviewed by prosecutors. He was being treated in a hospital.