A boat carrying 14 asylum seekers in distress is drifting in Malta's search and rescue area, emergency hotline Alarm Phone said on Saturday evening.

Having fled war-torn Libya, the group had been at sea for five days on a fibreglass boat and needed rescuing immediately, an NGO spokesperson said.

The Italian and Maltese authorities had been contacted about the boat, but had not responded, the spokesperson added. 

?!~14 people adrift in Malta SAR zone!We were informed about ~14 people in distress who fled Libya from Benghazi 5 days ago! Authorities are alerted, but didn't react so far. The people need to be rescued immediately! pic.twitter.com/nMYvKkiJYN

— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) November 6, 2021

On Thursday, around 400 people on a sinking boat in Malta's SAR were rescued by search and rescue vessels, while a few days earlier 49 others were found stranded at Għar Lapsi.

Questions sent to Armed Forces of Malta went unanswered at the time of writing.