A migrant has been shot dead and five others, including a two-year-old child, have been injured in violence at a migrant camp near Dunkirk.

Police and other emergency services rushed to the large Loon-Plage camp around 10am on Saturday.

It followed reports of shots fired and people injured within the sprawling makeshift camp.

A local French official confirmed one man was fatally wounded. He said that five other migrants at the camp, including a very young child had suffered bullet wounds.

Two local ambulance crews, as well as paramedics from the fire service and a rescue helicopter, responded to the incident. The victims are believed to be African migrants.

The child is reported to have been seriously injured, along with one of the adults. The two-year-old was taken by helicopter to the Lille University Hospital.

The seriously injured man, and three other less seriously wounded migrants have been taken to hospital in Dunkirk.

The perimeter of the Loon-Plage camp is completely cordoned off, as police carry out a detailed investigation.

This latest shooting is the most serious, with several other shootings and stabbings have occurred at the camp in recent weeks, in regular disputes between rival groups of migrants and people smugglers.

On Friday, a man was shot in the foot in a suspected dispute with a smuggler. Last Monday, a 27-year-old Yemeni man was shot three times but survived.

A 26-year-old man from Afghanistan was also shot in the thigh in the camp earlier in the week. The latest deadly violence erupted as more than a thousand small boat migrants crossed to the UK in just 24 hours.

On Friday, 919 migrants made the illegal crossing in 14 small boats.

Early this morning, a further 133 arrived in UK waters on three migrant boats. It takes the total who have crossed from France in small boats so far this year to more than 16,700.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

"That is why this government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.

"Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in Northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders."