Six children and a pregnant woman were among 12 people who died after a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the French coast, in the English Channel, BBC reports.

In total, 10 of the dead were female and two were male.

Officials say the boat was overloaded and that its bottom "ripped open", while fewer than eight people on board were wearing life jackets. 

The disaster is the deadliest loss of life in the Channel this year.

Local prosecutor Guirec Le Bras said officials believed the victims had been "primarily of Eritrean origin" though they could not yet "specify the exact nationalities".

bd-pratidin/GR