A CHILD is believed to have been among the four people who died after a crowded dinghy packed with people trying to reach Britain sank in the Channel on Wednesday morning. 

Kent County Council leader Roger Gough told a council meeting on Thursday that a teenager was among those who died. 

Twelve lone children were rescued from the icy waters, and have now been taken into the authorities’ care, he said. 

A search-and-rescue mission continued overnight and over the afternoon to look for four people feared missing. Authorities said drones and ships were being used to aid the search. 

The government said on Thursday that 39 people had been rescued from the water after crews launched a search-and-rescue mission at 2.16am which involved the Royal Navy, French navy, coastguard, RNLI lifeboats, ambulance service and police.

A British fishing vessel was the first boat on the scene, arriving at 3.04am, the spokesperson added. Videos showed crew members pulling people with ropes out of a partially submerged dinghy. 

In a statement, the RNLI said its volunteers arrived to “harrowing” scenes of distressed people in the water after its crews were called to respond to the distress alert by HM Coastguard. 

“Volunteers carried out the rescue of a number of people and returned them to Dover before subsequently retasking to search for more casualties,” the charity said. 

The RNLI said its crews did “all they could to prevent people from drowning,” but four people were confirmed to have died. 

“The RNLI response to this tragedy has been in conjunction with our search-and-rescue partners and the RNLI would like to offer our thanks to the UK fishing vessels whose actions on scene clearly saved the lives of many casualties,” it added. 

Refugee rights groups have blamed the disaster on the government’s hostile environment policies towards asylum-seekers and migrants, while coastguards’ union PCS has called for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to resign over the deaths. 

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch said it was reviewing evidence of the incident to decide whether an inquiry should be launched.