Moment before Channel tragedy that left five dead including girl, 4: Up to 100 ... trends now
Moments before a boat capsized in the Channel and left five people dead including a little girl, French police were beaten back by migrants with sticks and firecrackers.
Three men, a woman and a four-year-old girl drowned after the dinghy they were on flipped over in the early hours of this morning off the coast of northern France, casting around 112 people into the Channel.
Footage showed scores of people running towards the sea as they tried to beat back the French officers on Wimereux beach in northern France early this morning.
Once the migrants were in the water, the French police said there was nothing more they could do as they didn't have a boat.
Moments later, the boat hit a sandbank and caused panic that led to the boat capsizing and five people - including a little girl - drowning.
Only then did French police scramble a boat to save the remaining survivors.
However, when some of the migrants refused to be rescued and restarted the boat's engine, the French Navy instead escorted them onwards towards Britain, which they reached at around lunchtime today.
Migrants were seen beating back the French police using only wooden sticks and firecrackers
Once the migrants were in the boat, the officers said there was no more they could do
A helicopter of the Emergency medical services takes off from Wimereux on April 23
Emergency vehicles were seen beside an ice cream shop on the beach at Wimereux in France this morning
An emergency SAMU air ambulance was one of three that responded to the tragedy
A police officer looks on in Wimereux, near Calais, after migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel
Rescue boats were also seen off the coast of northern France as emergency services searched for survivors
Emergency workers rushed to the sea in a bid to save migrants who got in trouble while trying to cross the Channel
It is thought the small boat was launched from Wimereux in northern France, between Boulogne and Calais
The migrants had got into difficulty when the dinghy struck a sandbank exposed by the retreating tide.
This sparked panic and caused people to stand up, which unbalanced the boat.
People started falling into the water before the boat capsized, 'flinging everybody into the very cold sea,' a French maritime prefect said.
The French Navy intervention tug the Abeille Normandie (the Normandy Bee) was scrambled and picked up 47 survivors.
They were taken back to France, where four of them were arrested.
Yet 57 people refused to leave the boat, restarted the engine and were escorted towards Britain by the French navy.
It is believed the boat arrived in Britain at around lunchtime today.
Three search-and-rescue SAMU helicopters have been scouring the sea for survivors.
By 11am, funeral directors could be seen collecting bodies around Boulogne, while migrants suffering from conditions such as hypothermia were taken to hospital.
Most of the migrants on board were paying the equivalent of up to £1,000 per head for a voyage, meaning a single boat could be worth £100,000 to a smuggler.
An investigating source based in Boulogne said 'at least five' overcrowded small boats were seen pushing from the beach at Wimereux at around 3am today.
One of the helicopters was seen flying low over the beach at Wimereux this morning
Another air ambulance was seen landing at the side of the beach in Wimereux
A member of the French Gendarmerie talks with a driver of a passing car in Wimereux, near Calais
French police stopped another boat (pictured) from leaving northern France today
It was one of four that French police stopped from launching this morning
The furious Mayor of Wimereux Jean-Luc Dubaele (pictured) said the latest tragedy was all the fault of the British
The regional governor of the Calais region, Prefet Jacques Billant (pictured), condemned the human traffickers who packed this morning's victims into the boat
He said: 'Weather conditions were very calm, and hundreds of people were trying to get onto the boats at first light.
'Officers had already dispersed a number of them on Monday night, and confiscated nautical equipment including inflatable boats, outboard engines, life jackets and cans of fuel.'
Despite the police operation, hundreds of men, women and children still managed to launch dinghies.
The source added: 'All the boats were overcrowded, clearly because the people smugglers who organised them wanted to make as much money as possible.
'There were more than 100 people on single boats, which is incredibly dangerous, and the reason they capsized — the boats just can't take the weight of all those people.
'There were lots of children on the boats, including a four-year-old girl who died.'
The little girl's father was rescued by emergency services and taken to Wimereux beach, where he burst into tears and fell into the arms of refugee charity workers 'in a daze'.
Dany Patoux, from the Osmose 62 refugee charity, saw the father return to the beach. He said: 'We knew the little girl well. We have photos with her, with a big smile on her face, in the hope of a better life.
'But now, everything is ruined. Her father fell into our arms right away. He was crying, in a daze. He saw his little daughter die before his eyes.'
Officials said six 'lifeless bodies' were found this morning and taken to Wimereux beach, which is between Boulogne and Calais. One person was resuscitated but five sadly died.
Another overloaded dinghy was pictured in French waters after the incident this morning
Migrants, many of them in life jackets, were seen with their feet dangling in the water
They were escorted by French patrol boat Minck and met in the Channel by a UK Border Force ship
The investigating source said: 'Many others who were on the capsized boats were brought ashore unconscious.'
The regional governor of the Calais region, Prefet Jacques Billant, condemned the human traffickers who packed this morning's victims into the boat.
He told MailOnline: 'Some 112 souls were packed into that boat. It was unseaworthy – not properly inflated and completely overcrowded.
'To send people into the sea in a boat in that state is an act of murder.
'We arrested five people on human trafficking offences this morning.'
Prefet Billant refused to offer comment on Britain's Rwanda deportation plan.
He said simply: 'My job is to stop the people traffickers and I will use every resource at my disposal to do so.'
An emergency services spokesman said: 'Weather conditions are good, and this is one of the reasons that so many small boats set off this morning.'
A spokesman for the French coastguard said: 'The situation is ongoing and multiple search and rescue teams are in the area.'
Olivier Ternicien, president of Osmose 62, which is based at Boulogne, said: 'A child has died. A third helicopter has just arrived, we fear the worst.'
A criminal investigation into the deaths has been opened by the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor.
It came just hours after Rishi Sunak's Rwanda Bill to deter migrants from making the perilous crossing was passed in Parliament.
Rishi Sunak vowed to let nothing 'stand in our way' today as he gears up to send Channel migrants to Rwanda within weeks after the Government's deportation plan was finally passed by Parliament.
Last year, there were 67,337 asylum applications to the UK. Of those, 29,437 came from people who arrived in small boats.
The Rwanda scheme's capacity is 200 people per year. It means if the scheme had been running last year, it would have deported less than 0.7 per cent of small boat migrants.
In terms of the cost of the journey per person, for the first 300 migrants sent to Rwanda, it will cost the Government £1.8million per head, Whitehall's official spending watchdog said.
After the incident this morning, the Prime Minister said the 'tragic' incident reported in the Channel 'underscores' the need for the deterrent effect of the Rwanda plan.
Several dinghies were seen being removed from the water after a series of crossings today
Empty dinghies, believed to have carried migrants, are taken off a recovery boat at the Port of Dover
A person is carried on a stretcher as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI following a small boat incident in the Channel
He said: 'That is just a reminder of why our plan is so important
