A boat with 60 people on-board sank in the Yemeni archipelago of Socotra, in the Indian Ocean, with an Australian vessel among those coming to its aid.
Some 58 people were reported to still be missing following the incident late on Tuesday, the Yemeni news agency SABA reports.
SABA said an Austrian and an Australian ship came to the distress signals of the boat and rescued at least two passengers.
The ship, carrying women and children, had left the port of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramaut province, in the direction of the island of Qalansiyah some 480 kilometres south of the southern Yemeni coast.
The boat capsized about 47-km northwest of Qalnasiyah, prompting local authorities in the archipelago to send a distress call to the Saudi-led coalition and other nearby ships to assist in the rescue of the passengers.
According to local reports, the wrecked boat was towing some small fishing vessels which an undetermined number of passengers used as lifeboats.
It was yet unknown whether these people managed to reach the coast or whether they were rescued.
