Updated 8pm, adds rescue in Central Mediterranean

A charity rescue ship run by German NGO Sea-Eye was blocked outside Italian territorial waters Thursday with 40 migrants on board, after Italy's far-right interior minister banned it from entering.

The migrants on the Alan Kurdi, rescued Wednesday off Libya, hail from West Africa and include a pregnant woman, three young children and a man with gunshot wounds, according to Sea-Eye.

There were also two survivors of a bombing of a Tripoli detention centre that killed dozens of migrants in July, it said.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the rescue was a "provocation" and accused the crew of behaving "in a petty fashion".

The Alan Kurdi sailed north from Libyan waters overnight and came to a stop off the Italian island of Lampedusa Thursday.

Salvini says the rescue operation took place much closer to Tunisia than Lampedusa, so those saved should be taken there.

But rights campaigners say Tunisia cannot be considered a "safe port" because it has repeatedly blocked migrants at sea before repatriating them, without giving them time to apply for asylum.

The minister blocked an Italian coast guard ship off Lampedusa last week, only letting the migrants disembark in Sicily on Wednesday after a deal with the Italian church and five European countries to take them.

During its last rotation off Libya in early July, the Alan Kurdi rescued 109 migrants and disembarked them in Malta.

A few days earlier, the Sea-Watch - another German charity - forcibly landed migrants in Lampedusa after deciding those rescued posed a danger to themselves and others after a lengthy stand-off at sea.

Captain Carola Rackete's arrest was overturned by a court, but the ship was seized as part of a police investigation.

More people rescued

Meanwhile, another 50 people in distress were rescued from the Central Mediterranean earlier on Thursday.

Alarm Phone said on Twitter the migrants left Libya last night.