A group of 110 people were adrift in a rubber boat off the coast of North Africa on Saturday afternoon as weather conditions in the central Mediterranean deteriorated, NGO Alarm Phone said. 

The asylum seekers were spotted aboard a white rubber boat by a reconnaissance plane, named Moonbird, which is used to spot migrants in distress at sea. 

An image posted at just before 4pm indicated that the boat was off Libya’s coast. 

In a series of tweets, Alarm Phone said that state authorities had not responded to distress calls despite several hours’ notice. The NGO did not specify which countries it had contacted. 

“Our only hope rests with Open Arms now who are heading south. We hope they will arrive in time and prevent a possible tragedy,” Alarm Phone said. Open Arms is a sea rescue NGO that comes to the aid of people caught in distress in the central Mediterranean. 

The group of people adrift at sea includes nine women, Alarm Phone said. 

Climatic conditions are expected to worsen across the Mediterranean in the coming days, with an Arctic air mass pushing temperatures down and wind speeds picking up on Saturday night.