Two brothers aged 11 and 18 have died in a canoeing accident in the French region of Ardèche, the Telegraaf reports.

According to local media, the boys died in the presence of their father after the canoe they were in capsized and they were swept away by the current. Emergency service workers and divers were involved in the search for the boys.

The body of the youngest boy was found by passersby several kilometres from the place where the canoe capsized.

The man and his sons are thought to come from the north of the Netherlands and had rented a holiday cottage on the edge of the Ardèche, in south eastern France.