A boat which capsized in the English Channel killing four people issued a tragic call for help before it sank, it has emerged.
Two children - aged five and eight - and two adults were killed when the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) got into trouble off the French coast near Dunkirk yesterday
The migrants reportedly sent a message saying "Help us, we're sinking" at around 9.30am on Tuesday.
According to reports, the message was picked up by a French-flagged pleasure boat called Marbuzet and then relayed to the French coastguard.
A search resumed in the English Channel today for the body of another child - believed to be the child of the second adult victim - who is also feared to have died in the tragedy.
Their overcrowded "day fishing dinghy" capsized in "very bad weather conditions including high wind and rain", said local official Hervé Tourmente.
Some of the 15 survivors recovering in hospital from hypothermia have since indicated that a child is still missing after falling overboard, Mr Tourmente added.
All those involved were Iranian Kurds who were on the last stage of their journey to claim asylum in Britain.
All are believed to have been staying in Calais before heading off to try and get to England in the early hours on Tuesday.
As a search-and-rescue operation resumed at first light on Wednesday, French police were also trying to find suspected people smugglers responsible for launching the small boat in hugely perilous conditions.
Sébastien Piève, the Dunkirk prosecutor, said a criminal enquiry was focusing on suspected manslaughter, causing injuries and "assisting people in an irregular situation".
Mr Piève said no suspects had yet been caught, but seven survivors were in custody "for questioning" over possible connections with a people smuggling gang.
They charge up to £1,000 a head for a place in a small boat to get to the UK in a trade that regularly causes death and injury.
The French authorities confirmed they were in touch with their British counterparts as part of the enquiry.
More than 7,400 people have arrived in the UK in small boats this year – almost four times as many as in 2019, with a record 416 arriving on a single day, September 2nd.
Official data further reveals that in the year to June 2020, there were 3,402 applications for asylum from children aged 17 or under.
The tragedy has been described as the worst of its kind to have taken place between France and the UK since migrants began using makeshift boats to get to Britain.
In 2019, four migrants drowned in individual incidents, and before today the figure was three migrants for 2020.
Last Sunday week, a migrant was found on the beach at Sangatte, next to Calais.
Next to him was a life vest – one typical of the kind that migrants wear as they pack rigid inflatable dinghies bound for the coast of England.
And in August a Sudanese migrant who could not swim drowned after the toy blow-up boat he was using to try and get to Britain was accidentally punctured by a shovel being used as a makeshift oar.
The horrific accident led to the victim, who carried identity papers and a mobile phone, tipping into the English Channel just off Calais.
The latest drownings follow a war of words between France and Britain over who should be preventing migrants making the perilous sea journey between the two countries.
