French authorities have said eight migrants died while trying to cross the English Channel overnight.
The French maritime prefecture for the English Channel and the North Sea said 53 migrants were on board a boat which got into difficulty off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France.
A rescue operation was launched but eight people were confirmed dead, the prefecture said in a statement.
It comes less than two weeks after 12 migrants died when their boat sank trying to cross the English Channel.
A pregnant woman and six children were among those killed in the incident on 3 September, with up to 65 people rescued off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez.
More than 30 people have died in Channel crossings so far this year.
Before this month, the French coastguard had recorded at least 19 Channel crossing deaths in 2024, including nine since the start of July.
Last year, 12 migrants are thought to have died or were recorded as missing.
Responding to reports of the deaths, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "It's awful.
"It's a further loss of life."
He told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that he had been to the National Crime Agency and seen the "awful sort of rubber dinghies that people are coming across the Channel with, many of them, of course, not able to make it in these contraptions".
The UK government has been "discussing how we go after those gangs, in co-operation upstream with other European partners," he added.
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be in Italy tomorrow for talks with counterpart Giorgia Meloni about her efforts to tackle the problem "and the work they have done, particularly, with Albania".
Mr Starmer said he is interested in the rollout of the policy, under which Tirana will accept asylum seekers on Italy's behalf while their claims are processed.
French maritime authorities said more than 200 people were rescued in the Channel in a 24-hour period from Friday to yesterday.
Some 22,440 people have crossed the Channel so far this year, with nearly 9,000 having made the crossing since the general election.
