SIX DEAD AND TWO MISSING IN BOAT HELL

PRICE OF TORY FAILURES AS TWO SMALL BOATS SINK IN CHANNEL

- PATRICK HILL, ASHLEY COWBURN, SASKIA ROWLANDS and MATTHEW DRESCH

A HORRIFYING Channel tragedy has claimed the lives of at least six people as the Tories’ migrant crisis mounts. 

Two more were missing last night after two small boats sank in poor weather off Sangatte in the early hours of yesterday.

Witnesses described desperate passengers screaming in a flimsy, overloaded inflatable and trying to bail out the flooded vessel with their shoes.

French officials said one of the boats was spotted struggling at around 2am and had over 60 people on board.

Forty-nine were rescued – 36 by the French and 13 by the British. Six Afghan men in their 20s and 30s were later declared dead.

Survivors included children and were mostly from Afghanistan, with some from Sudan.

Another 22 people were saved from another sinking boat, including one in a critical condition. Rescue craft included an RNLI lifeboat launched just before 4am and a British chartered ship. The tragedy unfolded almost two years to the day 27 migrants drowned when their inflatable craft collapsed.