A baby has died after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the English Channel, French authorities said.
A total of 65 people have been rescued by French search and rescue teams after a migrant boat ran aground off the coast of Vissan in northern France.
The migrant boat was found to be heavily laden with people and others were in the water when four rescue ships and a helicopter arrived, the Channel and North Sea Maritime Prefect said.
The team put their Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) into the water and started to retrieve the people in difficulty, the marine prefect added.
During the rescue operation, an unconscious baby was pulled from the water and transferred to the Abeille Normandie, an aid and rescue tug chartered by the French Navy.
The baby was later pronounced dead by a doctor.
The dead 65 migrants and the baby were taken to a port in the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The marine prefect said weather conditions were often difficult in the area where the boat ran into trouble and it was a “particularly dangerous sector”, even when “the sea looks beautiful”.
An investigation into the incident has been launched in France.
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