Girl, 7, among five dead on Channel migrant boat

Five people, including a seven-year-old girl, have died while trying to cross the English Channel in the early hours of Tuesday, French officials have said.

They said the victims were trying to get to the UK on an overloaded boat carrying 112 migrants.

Authorities said the boat initially ran aground on a sandbank after setting off from Wimereux, near Boulogne, before continuing on.

Several search-and-rescue operations are under way to find survivors.

The prefect of Pas-de-Calais, where Wimereux is located, said the boat set sail from the Plage des Allemands with “an unprecedented 112 people on board”.

The “heavily laden boat” then “appeared to be in difficulty a few hundred metres from the beach after passing a sandbank,” the French maritime prefecture said in a statement. “Its engine stopped and two people fell into the water near the boat.”

Upon seeing the boat in distress, prefect Jacques Billant said the Abeille Normandie patrol boat was immediately deployed to rescue those who had set off on the boat. When they arrived, several people were “unconscious and in great difficulty.”

Six people were taken aboard the patrol board, before being taken to the beach to be treated by emergency services.

“Despite resuscitation attempts, five of them died,” Mr Billant said.

“We have photos with her, with a big smile in the hope of a better life,” she said.

Ms Patoux said she had seen the father of the child crying after the tragedy: “[He] fell into our arms… He saw his little girl die before his eyes.”

Another 47 people were rescued from the boat by French authorities, according to Mr Billant, but a further 57 remained on board as they did not wish to be rescued.

“They managed to get the engine running again and decided to continue their journey to the UK under naval supervision.”

The UK’s Border Force said it had brought about 70 migrants to shore on Tuesday. It added that more people were on board a vessel heading for Dover.

The BBC’s Andrew Harding witnessed the inflatable boat leaving the shore in the early hours of Tuesday. He described clashes between police officers and migrants as people attempted to board the boat.

Once the migrants boarded, however, he said the police made no further attempt to stop them. One man who had not managed to find a space on the boat was arrested, with an officer suggesting he might have supplied the boat to the migrants.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “These tragedies have to stop. I will not accept a status quo which costs so many lives.”

Mr Cleverly said the British government was doing everything it could to “break the business model” of the “evil people smuggling gangs”.

A spokesperson for the UK prime minister said the Channel deaths were “deeply distressing” and said they served as “a tragic reminder of the human cost of these crossings and why it’s so important that we stop the criminal gangs exploiting people into making these extremely dangerous journeys”.

Last night, the UK Parliament passed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda Bill, after months of wrangling. The law aims to send migrants arriving on small boats to have their asylum claims processed in Rwanda, which the UK government says will deter people smugglers.

Local French media reported that tens of boats left at around 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday when weather conditions were favourable and the sea was calm.

As of 21 April this year, 6,265 people had crossed the English Channel in small boats since the start of 2024 – almost a quarter more when compared with the same period last year.

Last year, 29,437 people arrived in the UK in small boats.