A teenager has been charged with manslaughter following the deaths of four asylum seekers in the English Channel.

Police were called to Dover to assist the coastguard following a report a small boat was in distress in the water in the early hours of last December 14.

A multi-agency search and rescue operation was carried out.

A total of 39 people were safely brought to shore at Dover after a dinghy capsized, but four men were pronounced dead.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths are the subject of an investigation by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, assisted by the National Crime Agency.

As part of this, Ibrahima Bah, 19, has been charged with four counts of manslaughter and is due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates' Court tomorrow.

Bah, of no fixed address, was previously charged with facilitating attempted illegal entry into the United Kingdom and is due to stand trial for that offence this year.

An inquest opened in Maidstone last December 23 and provisional cause of death was given as consistent with drowning. It has been suspended to a later date.

But none of the victims have so far been identified and police stress that officers are still trying to find out who they were and locate the next of kin.