Twelve migrants are missing after having leapt from a boat while heading for Spain’s Balearic archipelago in the Mediterranean, the authorities have said.

Another 14 migrants were rescued from the same vessel 58 kilometres southeast of the island of Cabrera, local officials said on Saturday.

The rescued migrants told officials that 12 passengers had leapt from the boat on Friday, the local authority said in a statement.

Spain’s civil guard and the coastguard were searching for the missing people, who were from north Africa, the statement added.