Channel deaths: desperate call from boat raised alarm for rescue operation

Four people died and more than 40 were rescued after a desperate call to a charity warned that a boat carrying asylum seekers including children had capsized in the Channel on Wednesday morning.

An unidentified man on the sinking vessel, in a recording obtained by the Guardian, asked at 2.53am for the alarm to be raised to save his family who were in the icy waters.

The alarm was raised with the UK and French authorities at 2.59am by the French NGO Utopia 56 which received the desperate call.

Separately, a fisher who was at sea has described being woken before 3am by people screaming for help.

The skipper of the fishing boat, known as Raymond, told Sky News that his crew spent two hours pulling 31 people from the freezing water. Those rescued included people from Iraq, Afghanistan, India and Senegal, he said.

The search and rescue operation that followed rescued another 12 people, sources confirmed.

Those rescued told the fishers they had paid £5,000 to get in the flimsy boat. Some can be seen in footage wearing T-shirts.

The Royal Navy, French navy, coastguard and RNLI lifeboats were all involved in a major rescue operation. RNLI lifeboats were launched from Dover at 3.07am, followed by more from Ramsgate and Hastings.

Two died after protracted attempts to revive them on the English coast failed in the early morning, a third was admitted to William Harvey hospital in Ashford but passed away subsequently. A fourth person was brought in to the Dover lifeboat station in a bodybag. A fifth person was taken to the same hospital for treatment, and was expected to recover and be discharged.