The United Nations warned Thursday that more than 500 people were feared dead following reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June.

The U.N.¡¯s International Organization for Migration and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports ¡°that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days.¡±

Preliminary information indicated that the two vessels in question departed from war-torn Myanmar¡¯s Rakhine State in late June, with mainly members of the country¡¯s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority onboard, the statement said.