The crew of the Irish naval vessel LÉ James Joyce has rescued 155 people in the Mediterranean.

The first operation began at around 6.20am this morning, when the ship's crew rescued 25 migrants from a wooden craft to the north-west of Tripoli.

In a second operation that got underway less than an hour later, 130 people were rescued from a rubber vessel.

The Defence Forces say a third search and rescue operation is also underway.

The LÉ James Joyce left Ireland on July 8th to assist the Italian Authorities with humanitarian search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.

Excluding today's operations, they have rescued 678 people so far.

More than 10,000 refugees and migrants were rescued by previous Irish crews deployed in the region.