AFP | Boulogne-Sur-Mer

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Migrants wrapped in red blankets stepped off a rescue ship in France yesterday, a reporter said, after French and British authorities saved 173 people whose boat caught fire as they tried to cross the Channel.

It was one of the largest rescue operations reported since records began in 2018 of such dangerous sea journeys from France to the United Kingdom.

"A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard" on Tuesday morning, the prefect's office in France's Pas-de-Calais region said. French maritime authorities later Tuesday revised the number of people rescued to 173 from an earlier figure of 157. Rescue services official Thierry Darras said some had sustained burns, grazes or bruises, but no serious injuries.

They had left the coastal village of Veules-les-Roses in Normandy on Monday, French maritime authorities said.

A spokesman for the British coastguard said UK vessels and a lifeboat were assisting after "a vessel caught fire earlier this morning" in French waters. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution charity said it had launched a boat to help at 6:00 am.