LILLE, France: Several people died, including a young child, when an overcrowded boat attempted to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday.
Another would-be asylum seeker was injured and airlifted to hospital after the dinghy issued a call for assistance on Saturday morning. A French tow vessel, the Abeille Normandie, picked up 14 people on board, including the deceased during a rescue mission between 8:00 and 9:00 am, officials said.
“Yet again, several migrants lost their lives trying to reach Britain by crossing the Channel,” the Pas-de-Calais prefecture in northern France said. “A child was trampled to death,” France´s hard-line interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X, adding that several other people had died in the “appalling drama”.
“The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these gangs who enrich themselves by organising these deadly crossings,” Retailleau added.
French officials said the accident was not a shipwreck and the dead child had been found in the boat, not in the water.
Olivier Barbarin, the mayor of the coastal town of Le Portel in northern France, said the child was around four years old. The injured person was airlifted to hospital in Boulogne, northern France.