Italian investigators say "many bodies" are on the wreck of a boat believed to be the craft that sank three weeks ago with more than 800 migrants on board.
Prosecutor Giovanni Salvi made the announcement in Catania, Sicily, a day after the Italian Navy said it had located a 25-metre vessel about 157km northeast of the Libyan coast and 375 metres below sea level.
The navy captured images of the vessel - believed to be the migrant boat that sank on April 18 - using a remotely operated camera.
Only 28 people survived the shipwreck, and 24 bodies were found floating at sea. Survivors reported that hundreds more people were on board, locked in the hold of the vessel and unable to escape after it overturned.
Salvi said footage indicated that at least one cabin door was open and explained that prosecutors were considering the possibility of ordering the recovery of the wreck from the seabed to verify whether the doors were really locked.
The UN's refugee agency described the shipwreck as "the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean ... ever recorded".
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