Tunis, Mar 24 (IANS): Tunisian coast guards have retrieved four bodies of illegal immigrants after four boats sank off the coast of Sfax province in southeastern Tunisia, Tunisian National Guard said.

Houcemeddine Jbabli, Tunisian National Guard's spokesman, told Xinhua by phone on Thursday that four boats sank on Wednesday night off the coast of Sfax, adding that the recovered bodies belonged to three infants and an adult.

A total of 63 immigrants were rescued during the operation, and the search for the missing, the number of which was not specified, is still underway, he said.

Jbabli added that also on Wednesday night, the coast guards thwarted 10 illegal immigration attempts to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian coast, with 366 illegal immigrants of sub-Saharan African nationalities being arrested, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tunisia, located in the central Mediterranean, is one of the main points of access to Europe used by illegal immigrants. The number of attempts by illegal immigrants to go to Italy from the Tunisian coast has been increasing despite the strict measures taken by the Tunisian authorities.