Four people died off the coast of northern France after attempting to cross the English Channel to the UK on Thursday morning.
Two men and two women died of heart attacks after being swept out to sea as they attempted to board an inflatable boat, French regional official Francois-Xavier Lauch said. Thirty-seven survivors were kept on the beach and given blankets, with one needing treatment for hypothermia.
French authorities in the northern port town of Calais said on Thursday: “A 'taxi boat' sinking occurred today. The situation is still being assessed and remains subject to change.”
The incident took place off the coast of Boulogne, between the beaches of Equihen and Ecault, south-west of Calais.
Firefighters and intensive care units arrived at the scene at 7.30am.
The “taxi boat” referred to is commonly a motorised dinghy run by the gangs who control people-smuggling operations. The inflatable vessels have been used in the past year to pick people up at sea from a number of coastal locations off northern France, slightly away from the shore where they could be intercepted by border patrols.
The incident on Thursday morning came a day after 102 people were rescued as they attempted to cross the waterway to Britain. Last week, a Sudanese and Afghan man became the first to die this year while attempting the crossing, off the French coastal town of Gravelines.
The UK is negotiating a new deal with France to stop small boats crossing the Channel illegally. An interim arrangement is currently in place after an earlier agreement expired at the end of last month.
The number of illegal Channel crossings have increased in the past three years, with 41,472 people arriving in the UK by small boat in 2025. Between January 1 and March 26, a total of 4,441 people were known to have crossed the strait illegally from France.
Though this is a 33 per cent decline in crossings from the same time period the previous year, it is thought a prolonged spell bad weather early this year has played a part in this.
The UK government said it was deeply saddened by the latest deaths.
“Every death in the Channel is a tragedy and a stark reminder of the dangers posed by criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable people for profit,” a spokesman said. “We will continue working relentlessly with the French and our partners overseas to prevent these perilous journeys.
“The French authorities are leading the response to this incident and we are supporting their investigation.”
The nationalities of the four dead are not yet known, French prosecutor Cecile Gressier said.
