One person has died and 72 more were rescued from a boat carrying more than 110 people which was trying to reach the UK.

The French coastguard said a rescue vessel was monitoring a boat in the Gravelines area overnight from Thursday to Friday, and it picked up 72 migrants who were requesting assistance.

The crew found one person on the boat who needed CPR and a rescue helicopter was dispatched, but they were pronounced dead.

Three other people were found injured, including one who required urgent medical care, according to a translation of a statement from the Prefecture maritime de la Manche et de la mer du Nord.

It came after 494 migrants arrived in the UK on Thursday, the first to successfully cross the Channel in 10 days.

The seven boats that made the crossing were the first since August 17 when 250 people arrived.

The total number is down overall this year, according to Press Association analysis of Government data.

Some 16,391 migrants have crossed the Channel so far, down 43% on the same time last year and a 17% drop from the same point in 2024.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will not be “complacent” about the falling numbers, and that there is “more we must do”.

She added: “That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.”

Government figures released on Thursday show that there were 16,000 asylum seekers living in Home Office hotels in June this year, down 50 per cent on a year earlier.

Ministers continue to close hotels housing asylum seekers as part of a move to using larger sites, such as former military barracks. Asylum seekers are also being moved into homes of multiple occupancy (HMOs).

Earlier this month, the Home Office closed Statford-upon-Avon’s grade II-listed Grosvenor Hotel and the Grand Metropole Hotel on Blackpool Promenade, one of the town’s two oldest hotels.

There are now fewer than 160 hotels in use by the Home Office – down from a peak of nearly 400 under the Conservatives.