recovered, even if sadly we are talking about bodies. this all began at around three o clock this morning in the cold and in the dark and in the freezing conditions, a boat carrying around 50 people started sinking. it was dangerously overloaded. it was first spotted by a passing fishing boat which managed to take on around 30 of the people who were in the water onto the fishing boat. the emergency services were called, prompting a huge response. four lifeboats were sent, from dover, dungeness, hastings and ramsgate, in addition, three helicopters, two from the uk and one from france, were sent to the scene. that gives you a sense of the scale we are talking about, where lives were at risk. the vast majority of people were rescued by the lifeboat crew bowed back two people who were in a critical condition. i understand they were brought back to
of people were brought here to dover ljy of people were brought here to dover by the border force and the lifeboat. the french authorities said they rescued 106 people from the channel in french waters. sadly, though, 27 people lost their lives including five women and a young girl. initially the french authorities said they thought 31 people had died, overnight the figure was reduced to 27, still an awful death toll. i think that gives you a sense of the confusing picture that faced the authorities when they were called to the incident by a passing fishing boat. when these boats take to the water, they are often dangerously overloaded. it appears in this case, the boat was particularly flimsy, that is how it was described as the french authorities. we don t know much about the people who were on board the boat. it will be quite a task to discover their identities. 0ften discover their identities. often people take to the water without any form of identification, trying to get over her