The Cyprus coastguard rescued 26 people -- mainly women and children believed to be Syrian and Lebanese migrants -- from a boat sinking in the Mediterranean in an operation completed early Wednesday, officials said.

The Cyprus coastguard rescued 26 people -- mainly women and children believed to be Syrian and Lebanese migrants -- from a boat sinking in the Mediterranean in an operation completed early Wednesday, officials said.

Some of the migrants had to be plucked from the water in the dark after the eight-meter (26-foot) pleasure boat ran into heavy seas off the island's southeast coast, the officials said.

The youngest was just five months old and several were kept in hospital for treatment, including a young child suffering from hypothermia and dehydration.

In September, 115 refugees, including 54 women and children, were rescued from a small fishing boat that ran into trouble off the south coast.

The UN refugee agency says more than 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, many of them Syrian refugees.