ANOTHER person has died after being pulled from the water while trying to cross the English Channel, the French coastguard said today.

A rescue operation was launched after reports that a group of people tried to board a dinghy and got into difficulty in the Equihen-Plage area, in northern France, shortly after 9am today.

The boat had set off further south near Hardelot-Plage an hour earlier, according to the authority.