LILLE, Nov 12 — Three migrants have been reported missing after seeking to cross the Channel from France to England in canoes, French maritime authorities said today.

Their disappearance was reported by two other migrants rescued at sea, the regional maritime prefecture said. Search efforts halted yesterday at nightfall and there was no plan to resume them, it added.

French coastguards were alerted after two canoes washed up off the coast around Calais and two survivors were then rescued by a French patrol boat.

A helicopter and other vessels were deployed to find the three missing "but despite the means deployed the three people could not be found,” the prefecture said.

There has been a marked increase in the numbers of migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England in recent weeks, taking advantage of relatively stable weather before the onset of winter.

Over two hundred migrants were rescued on Monday and Tuesday alone while two people died, one was missing and hundreds more rescued in incidents last week.

The past three years have seen a significant rise in attempted Channel crossings by migrants, despite warnings of the dangers in the busy shipping lane between northern France and southern England, which is subject to strong currents and low temperatures.

Deaths have been relatively rare on the route but there have been fatalities.

In mid-August, the sinking of a boat in the Channel caused the death of an Eritrean migrant.

And last year, four members of an Iranian Kurdish family died and their one-year-old child was reported missing, only to wash up several months later on the Norwegian coast, according to British media. — AFP