A rescue company has strongly denied receiving money from Maersk Tankers to take Libyan migrants from a product tanker off Tunisia last year.

The non-governmental organisation Mediterranea Saving Humans said its offices had been raided at dawn on 1 March in Italy on the order of the state prosecutor in Ragusa.

Italian media said the prosecutor has alleged there was a "commercial agreement" with the Danish shipowner, whose 36,900-dwt Maersk Etienne (built 2004) rescued 27 people last September and had them on...