Channel tragedy: ‘Smugglers tell their clients it’s just a lake – but it’s not’

Passengers on ill-fated dinghy probably had little notice before they set off. Exactly what happened next may never be known

When the lifeboat reached the dinghy not long after 3pm on Wednesday it was a crumpled mass of grey rubber, barely inflated and scarcely afloat. And surrounded, in the cold, dark water of the Channel, by already lifeless bodies.

Two helicopters were hovering noisily overhead as Charles Devos, at the helm of a volunteer-run rescue vessel, spotted the bobbing shape in the water. I just saw it there, pretty much completely deflated," he said.