Rome, March 5 (IANS/EFE): The Italian Coast Guard recovered the remains of ten illegal immigrants from the Strait of Sicily and rescued 121 people who were shipwrecked while traveling on a boat headed for the Italian coast.

The rescue team announced on Wednesday in a press release that the accident took place Tuesday afternoon when the operations center received an alert from an oil rig off the coast of Libya of a nearby shipwreck.

Italian ship Dattilo arrived at the scene to help take care of the remaining survivors and to recover the bodies.

The ship remained in the area to keep watch for more possible survivors.

The Italian Coast Guard launched on Tuesday a total of seven rescue operations at sea, saving a total of 941 immigrants trying to reach Italian soil.

The survivors were mostly Syrian, Palestinian, Tunisian and Libyan nationals, or from sub-Saharan Africa.

Among them were more than 30 children and 50 women. One woman was sent to the hospital on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The rest of the survivors were transferred to Sicily's ports.