Six people have been confirmed dead after a boat carrying migrants sank in the English Channel in France on Saturday morning.
Early on Saturday morning (August 12), information was received from a patrol boat that a migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte, an earlier statement from France’s Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said.
Some passengers are still missing, and about 50 migrants were rescued, some of them by the British vessels, the authorities from French Maritime said after earlier reporting one person had died.
However, a statement from France’s Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea has now confirmed six fatalities following the incident.
Two British ships and several French vessels have been involved in a search and rescue operation, an earlier update from France’s Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said.
A French helicopter was also deployed to the scene, as well as a ship from the RNLI and another British private vessel.
Many of those rescued were returned to Calais aboard the patrol vessel Cormoran. Some were also picked up by the RNLI’s Dover ship.
It is unclear how many people were on the boat and whether more are missing at this stage.
