Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece, writes cbsnews.com.

Hundreds of people were still feared missing, and an official with one major global charity said there were reports that 100 kids could have been trapped in the boat’s hold. At least 79 bodies have been recovered after a fishing boat crammed with migrants trying to make it from Libya to Italy capsized and sank a day earlier in deep waters off the Greek coast.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers - including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians, mostly men and including eight minors - but authorities fear that hundreds of others may have been trapped below deck. If confirmed, that would make the tragedy one of the worst ever recorded in the central Mediterranean.

“The survivors are in a very difficult situation. Right now, they are in shock”, - Erasmia Roumana, head of a UN Refugee Agency delegation, said after meeting the rescued migrants in a storage hangar in the southern port of Kalamata. “They want to get in touch with their families to tell them they are okay, and they keep asking about the missing. Many have friends and relatives unaccounted for”.

Greece declared 3 days of mourning and politicians suspended campaigning for a general election on June 25. A Supreme Court prosecutor ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the deaths.