Seven-year-old girl drowns after small boat capsizes in northern France

A seven-year-old girl has drowned after a boat capsized on the Aa canal in Watten, northern France, local authorities said.

The small boat was carrying 16 migrants including the seven-year-old girl’s parents, whose nationality is unknown. The couple had three other children on board and the mother is pregnant, according to a press release from France’s prefecture for the country’s Nord department.

Police and the fire brigade rushed to the scene after being alerted by a member of the public who was walking on the shore of the canal. The girl’s family were taken to Dunkirk hospital, the prefecture added.

Also on board were another couple, two men and six young children. The prefecture said they were also taken to hospital, but their lives are not in danger.

The small boat had likely been stolen and was not designed to carry so many people, the prefecture said.

The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, around 30km from the English channel.

According to the French prefecture, the incident comes amid an increased surveillance on the channel leading to migrants increasingly trying to launch inland.

A press officer told CNN that the fatal capsizing took place between two locks, an area which is “very, very dangerous.”

An investigation is underway.