A man has been eloctrocuted near the entrance to the Channel tunnel in Calais as he tried to climb on to the roof of a train to reach England, French officials have said.

At least 10 refugees or migrants have now died at Calais since the end of June.

“The individual died after he was electrocuted trying to climb on to the freight car,” a spokesman for local authorities in northern France told AFP. The local prefect’s office said the man, who died late on Thursday, was presumed to have been Syrian.

Eurotunnel, which operates the cross-channel link, said: “We deplore this event, which proves once again that any attempt to cross the Channel illegally carries considerable risks.”

Migrants have died in recent months trying to find a way to reach Britain by hiding on lorries or entering the Channel tunnel site.

In July, a Sudanese man aged between 25 and 30 was found dead near the tracks after he was run over by a lorry that was driving off the shuttle that he was trying to climb on to. A young Eritrean woman was run over on a Calais motorway this summer, and another was found dead at the side of the road. A 17-year-old Eritrean was found drowned in a water basin at the Channel tunnel. A 16-year-old Egyptian was electrocuted at Paris’s Gare du Nord railway station as he tried to jump from the roof of a stationary train on to a Eurostar.

At least 3,000 people from Syria, East Africa and Afghanistan are sleeping rough in insanitary conditions in a shanty town in Calais.

New security fences put up around the tracks have led to a drop in the number of attempts to break through to the Channel tunnel entrance. Eurotunnel has said the number of attempts have reduced from a peak of 2,000 a night to fewer than 150.

Eurostar said passenger train services were running as normal.