Around 80 migrants are understood to have been rescued after a boat got into difficulty while crossing the English Channel.
Some of the group are thought to have been pulled from the water, with the coastguard and lifeboat crews called to help Border Force during the incident off the Kent coast on Thursday morning.
No fatalities have been reported at this stage, the PA news agency understands, and it is so far unclear whether anyone will need to be taken to hospital.
A spokeswoman confirmed the coastguard was “co-ordinating the response to a small boat incident in the Channel this morning”, adding: “Coastguard helicopters from Lydd and Lee-on-Solent and RNLI lifeboats have been sent.”
The RNLI said lifeboats from Dover and Walmer attended.
More information about the incident is yet to be confirmed.
More than 125,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in the last six-and-a-half years as the recent crisis unfolded.
Since the UK government struck the deal to send migrants to Rwanda over two years ago – which has since stalled amid legal challenges – more than 80,000 people have made the journey.
The tally of crossings since Rishi Sunak, who pledged to “stop the boats”, became UK prime minister is edging closer to 50,000 while the number arriving since the British general election was called is nearing 1,000.
The British Home Office said 34 people made the journey in one boat on Wednesday, taking the provisional total number of crossings for the year so far to 10,779.
This is up 42 per cent on the number recorded this time last year (7,610) and 8 per cent higher than the same point in 2022 (9,984), according to PA analysis of the figures.
