MADRID: Two people, including a four-year-old girl, have been found dead on a migrant boat off Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish rescue services said Friday.

A total of 27 people had left the west African coast in a barely seaworthy vessel, seeking to reach the Canaries archipelago. The Spanish coastguard told AFP the two bodies were discovered after a fishing boat came to the vessel’s assistance Thursday, adding that a third person was airlifted to hospital with chest pains.