Updated | AFM rescues two-day old baby and mother

Updated at 2.30pm with information from NGO Proactiva Open Arms

A two-day old baby was rescued on Saturday morning by the Armed Forces of Malta off the island's coast.

In a statement, the AFM said that the baby and his 23-year old mother were rescued 57 nautical miles south of Malta by an AW139 helicopter.

The two were winched to the army’s Air Wing Base and later taken to Mater Dei Hospital for medical treatment.

No other details were given at this time by the AFM, however the migrant rescue NGOs Proactivata Open Arms and Sea Watch offered more information on Facebook in connection with a number of migrants who were found at sea.

It is understood that the woman and baby had been amongst the migrants, but that only the two had been assisted directly by the AFM.

Open Arms wrote on its Facebook page that it had in recent hours saved more than 300 people, who had been in three boats, from "death in the sea" and that Malta had "refused" to give food in the incident.

Media reports, however, quoted AFM sources as saying that it was the weather conditions which prohibted the army from supplying food for the migrants.