An Irish Ferries ship operating on the Strait of Dover was forced to stop to rescue more than a dozen migrants in a sinking dinghy and return them to France, reports The Telegraph.

Crew on the Isle of Inishmore threw a rope to the 13 migrants to help pull their craft to the side of the ship, before rescuing them and returning them to Calais.

The ferry captain announced to the passengers: “Apologies for the delay, but we had to stop and rescue 13 migrants in distress, whose boat had run out of fuel and was sinking.”

It is thought to be the first time there has been such a rescue and came as a migrant in his 30s died when a boat packed with 40 people sank off the French coast near Dunkirk. A second migrant was reported missing.

Sebastien Pive, Dunkirk’s public prosecutor, announced a manslaughter inquiry, saying the boat had been so overloaded it broke down and sank.

It is the second channel tragedy in just over a week, after three Somali migrants were lost at sea from a dinghy that was finally picked up 30 miles off Harwich, in Essex. Two other Somalis were rescued from the boat.

For more on the record number of migrants reaching the UK, click here.