A Dutch merchant ship has rescued 320 migrants adrift in a boat in the Mediterranean Sea, broadcaster Nos said on Saturday.

The Erasmusgracht was heading from Turkey to Poland when it spotted the boat carrying the migrants,some 250 miles south east of the Italian coast.

According to Nos, the boat had been drifting for two days after the motor failed. The crew had left in a motor boat, leaving their passengers to fend for themselves.

Some of the people on board are in a bad way, including several children, Nos said. They had food on board but nothing to drink and several had drunk sea water.

The Erasmusgracht is now moored off the coast of Sicily, where it hopes to leave the migrants.

A spokesman for the ship’s owner, shipping company Spliethoff, told the broadcaster a German merchant ship had refused the help the migrants and sailed away.