A livestock carrier ship with hundreds of migrants on board is adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, where currents tug it toward Italy's coast, the Italian coast guard said on Friday.

The Ezadeen, a merchant ship bearing a Sierra Leone flag, has at least 400 people with no crew on board. Italy's coast guard said the ship has lost power in high seas off the shores of southeast Italy.

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Iceland's coast guard vessel, the Tyr, which was on patrol in the area, has tried to board the ship but tall waves and stormy weather made the rescue hard.

The coast guard sounded the alarm after receiving a plea for help from one of the migrants who managed to broadcast from a radio on board the Ezadeen.

The Ezadeen, a carrier for livestock, first set sail nearly 50 years ago, according to data form MarineTraffic.com. The ship was supposed to sail between France's port Sete and Cyprus, according to the Web site.

Before it apparently fell to human traffickers, the ship was apparently listed to a Lebanese company.

The Ezadeen is the latest in a series of ships full of migrants left adrift in the Mediterranean Sea.

Iceland's coastguard ship Tyr has been taken part in the rescue of similar vessels since the start of December last year.

Earlier this week, almost a thousand migrants on board another abandoned ship were rescued.

Illegal human traffickers apparently have a hand in the leaving the ships to their fate, with authorities saying it seems to be a new trend. But Italy will no longer come to their rescue after ending Operation Mare Nostrum, Rome's expensive search-and-rescue efforts for troubled migrants near its shores.

Traffickers collect thousands of dollars from migrants who seek a better life in Europe and who are usually abandoned at sea.

Since November, the European Union's border agency Frontex has been carrying out Operation Triton over a limited maritime area with little resources.

EU member states had been asked to do more in helping migrants and crack down on traffickers.