Paris ? A French naval frigate conducting a surveillance mission off Malta discovered the bodies of 18 people floating in the Mediterranean on Friday, a navy spokesman said.

Crew members on “La Motte Picquet” noticed no boat nearby as the bodies – possibly of illegal immigrants hoping to reach Europe – were pulled out of the water, said Cmdr. Emmanuel Dinh by telephone from the southwestern port city of Toulon.

Search efforts were completed Friday evening, and the vessel was returning toward France. The bodies were believed to have been floating in the sea for two or three days, Dinh said.

Based on the state of decomposition of the bodies, “it will be difficult to identify the people” – much less track down their family members, he added.

The corpses were found about 215 miles south of Malta, between the Mediterranean island and Libya, but it was not clear where the victims had set out from, he said.