A little girl is among 31 migrants to have died after their boat sank in the English Channel.
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the dead included five women and a girl.
He told an impromptu news conference in Calais that the boat which sank had been “very frail”, likening it to “a pool you blow up in your garden”.
He said 34 people were believed to be on the boat. Authorities found 31 bodies and two survivors while one person was missing.
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An emergency search was sparked when a fishing boat sounded the alarm earlier on Wednesday after spotting several people in the sea off the coast of France.
A rescue operation was under way in the Channel by air and sea as French and British authorities searched for anyone still in the water.
Boris Johnson said the deaths in the Channel were “appalling” and “underscored how dangerous it is” to cross from France.
Speaking to reporters at Downing Street, he said: “I just want to say that I’m shocked and appalled and deeply saddened by the loss of life at sea in the Channel.
“I think the details are still coming in but more than 20 people have lost their lives.
“My thoughts and sympathies are first of all with the victims and their families. It’s an appalling thing that they have suffered.
“But I also want to say that this disaster underscores how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in this way.”
French prime minister Jean Castex said the shipwreck was a 'tragedy.
“My thoughts are with the many missing and injured, victims of criminal smugglers who exploit their distress and injury,” he said.
Meanwhile Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said stopping the crossings is the 'humanitarian and right thing to do.'
She said: “This is an absolute tragedy. It underlines why saving lives at sea starts by stopping the boats entering the water in the first place.
“As winter is approaching the seas will get rougher, the water colder, the risk of even more lives tragically being lost greater.
“That’s why stopping these dangerous crossings is the humanitarian and right thing to do.”
The deaths come amid record numbers of migrants making the crossing.
More than 20,000 people have got into small boats and made the dangerous trip across the English Channel to the UK since the start of the year, recent figures show.
This is more than double the total for the whole of 2020.
