A 34-year-old British woman has died while attempting to swim the English Channel between Dover and Calais, a French newspaper reported Sunday.

French rescue officials were alerted to a problem by a boat that was accompanying the woman and asked for a defibrillator, regional newspaper La Voix du Nord reported.

The woman was taken by a French naval helicopter from the 10-metre long Pathfinder to a hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer, where she was declared dead.