A ship carrying hundreds of people in the Mediterranean is in danger and is “disintegrating”

(CNN) – A ship in the Mediterranean carrying 430 migrants is disintegrating, and the Tunisian Navy is on its way to help, according to Maurice Stierl, an Alarm Phone official who spoke to CNN via email Thursday.

Stierl also said that according to people aboard the vessel, there have already been fatalities, although the number and manner in which they lost their lives is unclear. Stierl also said he could not independently verify the fatalities.

“We communicate with people in distress in the central Mediterranean through a satellite phone, on other routes also with normal mobile phones.” Stierl told CNN.

Alarm Phone is a transnational network of activists launched in October 2014.

“Since then, the network has assisted more than 4,000 vessels in distress in the different maritime regions along the external borders of Europe,” said Stierl.