Six migrants, among them a teenager, have died trying to swim to shore when their boat ran aground on a sandbar off Sicily.
The Italian coast guard said 100 migrants were on board when the boat became stranded 15 metres away from a popular tourist beach in Catania on Saturday.
Authorities were trying to identify the survivors, thought to be Syrians and Egyptians, after some swam to safety and others were rescued by the coast guard.
A three-year-old child suffering from dehydration and a pregnant woman have been taken to hospital.
It is rare for the often unseaworthy vessels of smugglers to aim for shores near cities.
Rescued immigrants wait to be identified Coast Guard Captain Roberto D'Arrico said the 18-metre-long boat apparently made a navigational error while trying to reach secluded shores undetected.
"Most of the migrants jumped into the water" when they saw the coastline, he said.
The bodies of two of the dead migrants were found on the beach while "four other bodies were recovered" by rescuers around the boat, as they apparently did not know how to swim and drowned, authorities said.
Stunned holidaymakers were shocked at the sight of six body bags on the beach.
Dario Monteforte, owner of the Lido Verde which alerted authorities, told Sky TG24 television that he "saw a crowd of youths on the beach running toward the road".
"Something has to be done. This is really an unending tragedy," he said of the plight of thousands of clandestine migrants in rickety boats who seek to reach Italy each year.
According to Mr D'Arrigo, it was "totally unusual" for migrants to land on a beach in Catania as "normally they arrive further south in the region of Syracuse", or else at the extreme southern point of Sicily or the island of Lampedusa.
Another group of about 100 migrants, mostly Syrian families, were rescued overnight on Wednesday off the coast of Calabria on the Italian mainland.
The conflict in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people since it erupted in March 2011 and millions more have been displaced or fled the country, according to the United Nations.
Improved weather and calmer waters have seen a surge in boat people arrivals in Italy in recent days.
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