TUNIS, Tunisia — At least 200 immigrants are missing and two are dead after a fishing boat carrying hundreds of immigrants sank off the coast of Tunisia in a storm, the official news agency reported today.

The boat was believed to have set sail from Libya and was en route to Italy with an estimated 800 would-be immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia on board, including women and children, the report said.

The boat stalled some 20 miles off the Kerkennah islands in southern Tunisia on Tuesday night in foul weather that also hampered rescue operations.

Some 570 passengers were rescued by the Tunisian coast guard and army throughout Wednesday. Authorities attributed the large number of missing to the stampede to get off the ship and board inflatable rafts during the storm, as well as a lack of resources mobilized in the rescue.