Four people have died off the coast of northern France after attempting to cross the English Channel, local authorities have said.

Two men and two women died after they “tried to board a water taxi” and “the currents, which can be dangerous here, swept them away”, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture said at a news conference.

The death toll was still “provisional”, local official François-Xavier Lauch said.

One person was treated for hypothermia and had non-life-threatening injuries, and 37 others were taken to the hospital, he added.

French media is reporting that rescue efforts were still under way on Thursday morning after the incident off the coast of Boulogne, between the beaches of Équihen and Écault, south of Calais.

Firefighters and intensive care units arrived at the scene at 07:30 local time (06:30 BST).

After weeks of difficult conditions, the weather in the Channel has been calm over the last few days. Crossings tend to increase in the summer months.

Over the past three years, crossings in the Channel have increased, with 41,472 people arriving in the UK by small boat in 2025.

Between 1 January and 26 March 2026, a total of 4,441 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France.

This is 33% lower than the number who had reached the UK by this point in 2025, which was 6,642, although weather conditions may have played a part in this, with rougher conditions in the Channel compared with the same period in 2025.

People smugglers have begun using taxi-boats as a tactic to avoid police.

Instead of inflating their boats in the dunes along the coast, close to police patrols, the people smuggling gangs are launching them from better hidden locations, often dozens of kilometres from the main departure beaches.

They then cruise along the coastline, like taxis or buses, picking up their paying customers who now wait in the sea, out of reach of the police.