LILLE   -  A migrant died Wednesday while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain in an overcrowded vessel, French maritime police said. Seventy-one other people were rescued after the vessel deflated off Gravelines on France’s northern coast, the regional maritime police authority said in a statement. French emergency services sent a plane, two helicopters and a rescue boat to search for people drifting in the water. A French ship took on board 59 people including one who was unconscious and “could not be revived”, the statement said.

It added that a British coastguard boat took on a further 13 people.

All those rescued were put ashore at Calais and received by the emergency services.

Aircraft and vessels searched until dark and found no other people, the statement said.

Four people were reported killed on Friday in a similar wreck.