THE body of a baby found on the coast of Norway is that of a missing 15-month-old who died in the English channel, police have confirmed.

The child, named Artin, died along with four family members when the boat they were travelling on sank in October last year.

His Kurdish-Iranian family had been attempting to reach the UK from France and his remains will now be flown back to Iran where he will be buried.

They had set off for the UK in a boat carrying as many as 28 people when their migrant boat sank.

The other four members of his family to have died were his father Rasoul Iran-Nejad and his wife Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, along with their children Anita, nine, and Armin, six.

On Monday, police in Norway said the body had been found on Norway’s South-western shore near Karmoy on New Year’s Day.

The police statement said: "Skilled professionals in the department of forensic sciences at Oslo University Hospital managed to retrieve matching DNA profiles.”

The family were notified that it was Artim.

In October, a cousin of Mr Iran-Nejad said: “We are all devastated.

“The family were absolutely lovely, they were fun to be around, they were extremely kind (and) so were the kids.

“They lived a not very well-off life. They were always short of money.

“His only hope of coming to the UK was for a better future for the children.”

At the time, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the deaths were “an ultimate tragedy” and one that “could have been avoided”.

The boat carrying the family sank on 27 October 2020, they were from the city of Sardasht in western Ira, near to the border with Iraq.