AN ACTIVIST-RUN refugee rescue ship is racing today towards a boat carrying about 250 people adrift in the central Mediterranean for over a week and without food or water or assistance from the authorities for days.

A three-month-old baby girl in the boat has already died of dehydration and an unknown number have jumped overboard in an attempt to reach a passing cargo vessel.

The activist-run distress hotline organisation Alarm Phone was contacted by someone on the boat on Monday morning.