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French and British vessels save migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel. [Sameer Al-Doumy, AFP]
Migrants wrapped in red blankets stepped off a rescue ship in France on Tuesday, an AFP reporter said, after French and British authorities saved 173 people whose boat caught fire as they tried to cross the Channel.
It was one of the largest rescue operations reported since records began in 2018 of such dangerous sea journeys from France to the United Kingdom.
"A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard" on Tuesday morning, the prefect's office in France's Pas-de-Calais region said.
