Four women and five babies died when their boat sank off the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, authorities there said on Sunday.

Officials on the island, which is part of the Comoros archipelago, said 24 people were rescued from the boat, which sank after hitting a reef on the night of Saturday to Sunday.

Migrants from the neighbouring Union of Comoros, which has endured 19 coups since independence from France in 1975, regularly try to land illegally on Mayotte in the hope of finding a better life.

Dugout canoes, often overloaded with would-be migrants, frequently sink while trying to reach the French island.