At least 12 people have died in the English Channel after a boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized, according to French authorities.
A further two people are missing and several injured, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.
The French coast guard said more than 50 people had been rescued off the Gris-Nez cape. Several were being treated by medical staff.
The disaster is the deadliest loss of life in the Channel this year.
It brings the toll of people who have lost their lives attempting the journey across the English Channel this year to more than 30, out of more than 20,000 people who have made the crossing.
“Terrible shipwreck in Pas-de-Calais,” Mr Darmanin wrote on X.
He said that emergency services were working to find those still missing and take care of the victims.
He is expected to travel to the site, near the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, on Tuesday.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the incident as “horrifying and deeply tragic”.
“The gangs behind this appalling and callous trade in human lives have been cramming more and more people onto increasingly unseaworthy dinghies, and sending them out into the Channel even in very poor weather,” she said.
The effort to “dismantle these dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs and to strengthen border security is so vital and must proceed apace”, she added.
Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, a charity set up to aid migrants in Calais, said: “These tragedies have occurred with much more frequency.”
“Every political leader, on both sides of our Channel, needs to be asked: ‘How many lives will be lost before they end these avoidable tragedies?'”
The French coastguard said helicopters, Navy boats and fishing ships were involved in the rescue operation.