Spain's coastguard had rescued 86 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from a boat near the Canary Islands that had been spotted earlier on Monday by a rescue plane.
The Salvamento Maritimo coastguard service said they had found the boat with six females and 80 males on board as rescuers were searching for a missing migrant boat that had "left Senegal with around 200 people on board".
It did not indicate the ages of those rescued. When a rescue plane spotted the vessel about 71 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria, it was initially thought to have "around 200 people on board", a spokeswoman said.
"We can't be 100 percent sure but it's likely it is the same boat," she said. But the coastguard later acknowledged that the earlier estimate by the plane's crew was incorrect.
"It is difficult to determine the number of people from the air," she later told AFP, saying those rescued were being taken to Arguineguin port on Gran Canaria.
Minors involved
The situation remains confused, however, and the spokeswoman told AFP she was not able to say categorically whether there was another boat adrift in the same area with 200 people on board.
Helena Maleno, head of Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras which helps migrant boats in distress, said that a vessel had left the southern Senegalese town of "Kafountine on June 27 with approximately 200 people on board".
"There are many minors on board," she said in an audio message, explaining the families "told us about the disappearance of the boat saying they had had no news for several days".
Kafountine is a fishing village in the southern part of Senegal, which lies at least 1,700 kilometres (over 1,000 miles) south of Spain's Canary Islands.
She said the NGO knew of two other boats also missing after leaving Senegal. "Two of them set sail from Mbour in Senegal, one carrying between 50 and 60 people and the other, 65 people," she said, referring to a town about 75 kilometres south of the capital Dakar.
