A woman has died after being "crushed" on an overcrowded migrant dinghy headed for the UK.

Around 75 people were sat on the "very crowded" boat around 5am, when emergency services were called. Of those 75, 34 were pulled from the rubber vessel by rescue teams, while the remainder were allowed to carry on their way to Britain's white cliffs.

The woman who airlifted from the water but died before reaching the hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

"Rescuers saw an unconscious woman on board," said a French emergency services spokesperson.

"She was rapidly taken off and given first aid treatment, but she died on her way to hospital."

The woman is yet to be formally identified, but is the seventh person to die in similar circumstances in July alone.

According to Metro, an emergency services source said: "She was nowhere near the water, but succumbed to being crushed by the amount of people around her.

"Migrants are drowning in the water, but the new phenomenon of people dying inside the boats is becoming very serious indeed."

Not including today's arrivals, there have 484 migrant arrivals from the English Channel in the last seven days, according to UK Border Force data.

A Maritime Prefecture spokesperson said that it was when they arrived to pull people off the overcrowded boat that they noticed someone unconscious that needed urgent medical attention.

They added: "Several people still on board the boat refused assistance.

"Given the risks of falling overboard or injury to people in the event of forced intervention, the decision was made to let the other people on this boat continue on their journey to England."