Only a lucky few seen in the photographs were able to survive the disaster with hundreds of others dying.

More than 450 migrants desperate for a new life in Europe were crammed on board the former fishing vessel when it went down just 20 miles off the northern coast of Libya.

Only the lucky few seen in the photographs - which were taken from a passing aircraft - were able to survive the disaster, clinging to the tiny tip of the hull that remained above the water after hundreds of their friends and family members sunk to their tragic deaths.

Even when help finally did arrive, the ordeal did not end. As these harrowing photographs show, a life raft rapidly became overwhelmed by numbers as they clambered aboard it, then crumpled and folded, casting them back into the merciless sea.

Hundreds of migrants are understood to have died before witnesses with cameras in a passing aircraft were able to document the harrowing scene, MailOnline reports.

The passengers quickly alerted the Italian Coast Guard, who raced to the scene and pulled the handful of survivors to safety. It is estimated that no more than 10 per cent of those on board the sunken vessel managed to survive.