Four women were found dead on a migrant boat that was spotted adrift off the southeast coast of Spain, maritime rescue officials said Friday

Rescuers were alerted late Thursday to the semi-rigid boat drifting some 11 nautical miles of Cartagena on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

They found the bodies of four people at the vessel, a spokesman for the service said. All four were women, the service said later on X, formerly Twitter.

Spain's Guardia Civil police, which is in charge of the investigation, suspects the boat was trying to reach Spain from North Africa and ran out of fuel.

Spain is one of the main gateways for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, with 56,852 undocumented migrants reaching its shores last year, an 82 percent jump from 2022.

The vast majority arrived on the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off Africa's western coast.

Several thousand die every year while attempting the journey.