Eight men are believed to have died while attempting to cross the Channel, French authorities say.

The tragedy happened after the boat got into difficulty near Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France.

The French maritime prefecture for the English Channel and the North Sea said 53 people were on the boat.

Jacques Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, told French media on Sunday that six people were taken to hospital “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia.

He said the boat “quickly” got into trouble after it set off, and appears to have crashed into rocks.

Survivors of the accident come from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran, he added.

A UK Government spokesperson said French authorities are leading the investigation.

It was revealed this afternoon that 801 people in 14 boats crossed yesterday.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm there has been an incident in the Channel involving a small boat in French waters.

“French authorities are leading the response and investigation. We will not be commenting further at this stage.”

British Red Cross said the deaths were “tragic”, as the charity organisation called for more safe crossing routes for migrants.

“Nobody risks their life travelling across the Channel in a small boat unless they feel they have no other choice,” the director for refugee support, Alex Fraser, said.

Responding to reports of the deaths, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “It’s awful. It’s a further loss of life.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the Government is continuing work on ‘how we go after’ the people-smuggling gangs (Lucy North/PA)

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme 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 Government has been “discussing how we go after those gangs, in co-operation upstream with other European partners”, he added.

Sir Keir Starmer will be in Italy on Monday for talks with counterpart Giorgia Meloni about her efforts to tackle the problem “and the work they have done, particularly, with Albania”.

The Prime Minister has 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.

It comes after 200 asylum seekers were rescued from the French coast on Friday and Saturday night.

In July, four people drowned when their boat capsized as they tried to reach the Uk from the coast of Boulogne-Sur-Mer.

Some 22,440 people have crossed the Channel so far this year, with nearly 9,000 having made the crossing since the general election.