Sea Watch said on its Twitter account that its ship, Sea-Watch 3, helped two inflatables that had run into trouble in the early hours of Christmas Day.

The two dinghies were carrying around 100 and 80 people respectively and were rescued around 38 nautical miles (70 kilometres) off the coast of Libya, a spokesman told AFP.

Sea Watch said its team was now looking after around 270 people in all, after picking up 93 people in a wooden boat in international waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday morning.

Sea-Watch 3 set out on its "Christmas rescue operation" on Thursday evening.

The rescue ship has been patrolling the sea off the Libyan coast since November 2017 and helping any vessels in distress.