France says pregnant women among 27 dead in English Channel

France's interior minister says pregnant women and children are among at least 27 migrants killed trying to cross the English Channel in a small boat that sank.

CALAIS, France -- Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday.

The French prosecutors' office tasked with investigating the sinking said the dead included 17 men, 7 women and two boys and one girl thought to be teenagers.

Magistrates were investigating potential charges of homicide, unintentional wounding, assisting illegal migration and criminal conspiracy, the prosecutors' office said.

Illegal migration from France's northern shores to Britain has long been a source of tension between the two countries, with both sides blaming each other even as their police forces work together to try to stop unseaworthy boats from crossing the English Channel.

He also suggested that by hiring people living in the country illegally, British employers are encouraging illegal migration to English shores.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke after Wednesday’s tragedy and agreed “that it is vital to keep all options on the table to stop these lethal crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs behind them,” Johnson’s office said