No fewer than 14 people have been confirmed dead after their wooden boat capsized off the Senegalese capital Dakar, a district deputy mayor told newsmen on Tuesday. 

‘It seems to be migrants,’ Samba Kandji said after several similar tragedies in recent weeks.

Rescue workers were still looking for more bodies after the pirogue overturned overnight from Sunday to Monday.

‘The navy told the vessel to draw alongside and they fled,” Kandji later added.

‘I was told 14 (dead) but two more bodies have been found. We assume it’s 16,’ he said.

Activity has increased in recent weeks along the Atlantic sea route from northwest Africa used by migrants to try to reach Europe via Spain’s Canary Islands.

Blaze Fm