French gendarme used a tractor to pull a damaged migrants’ boat after a failed attempt to cross the English Channel that led to the death of 8 people near the beach of Ambleteuse, northern France on September 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said on Sunday (September 15, 2024).

The incident occurred on Saturday (September 14, 2024) just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.

A French rescue ship was deployed to the area and rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants on the beach, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.

“Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said.

No people were discovered during the search at sea, it added.

Six people were taken to hospital “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect, told French media on Sunday. He said survivors of the accident come from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.

Survivors of the tragedy have been taken to the sports hall in Ambleteuse, according to a statement from the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais region. Prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-mer has opened an investigation into the accident.

The incident on Saturday occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, officials said.

British officials were quick to express sadness over another English Channel incident.

“It’s awful,’’ Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s a further loss of life.”

The new Labour Party government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs plying the channel trade and had discussed with European partners “how we go after those gangs, in co-operation upstream.’’

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north. Before Saturday’s accident, at least 43 migrants had died or gone missing while trying to cross to the U.K. this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway on Sunday along the entire Pas-de-Calais coast amid stormy weather conditions and agitated sea, French maritime authorities said. They warned anyone who tries to cross the Channel on flimsy and overloaded boats and in often difficult weather conditions of “significant risks.”

On Saturday, French coast guard and navy vessels rescued 200 people from the treacherous waters in the Pas-de-Calais area, according to a report sent by French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea.

They said they observed 18 attempts of boat departures from France to Britain on Saturday.

In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five dead were recovered from the sea or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.

Rouen:

Elite French police forces were on Tuesday hunting gunmen who rammed into a prison van, killing at least two prison officers and allowing the inmate they were transporting to escape.

A police source told AFP three officers were killed and two others wounded in the attack.

Another source close to the case, who also asked not to be named, said two prison officers had been killed and three wounded.

MASSIVE MANHUNT IN PARIS – 3 GUARDS KILLED IN PRISON VAN ATTACK | GANG LEADER ESCAPES

3 French prison guards were killed and 3 others seriously wounded after 4 men armed with Kalashnikovs rammed a prison van near Paris in Incarville.

The attack occurred as they transported the… pic.twitter.com/51Gex3tdAn

— DiplomaticEcoStrategist (@UlefossImir) May 14, 2024

The incident took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, another source close to the case added.

The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy.

A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled. 

One of them was wounded, the police source said.

It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total. 

“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X.

“We will be uncompromising,” he added, describing the attack as a “shock”.

– ‘All means used’ –

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti confirmed the attack on the prison convoy and said on X he was immediately heading to a crisis cell at his ministry.

“I am frozen with horror at the veritable carnage that took place at the Incarville toll,” said Alexandre Rassaert, the head of the Eure region council.

“I hope with all my heart that that the commando team of killers which carried out this bloody attack will be arrested quickly.”

A unit of the GIGN special police force has been despatched to apprehend the suspects.

Traffic was stopped on the A154 motorway where the incident took place. 

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X he had ordered the activation of France’s Epervier plan, a special operation launched by the gendarmerie in such situations.

“All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised,” he said.

BFM TV, quoting a source close to the investigation, said the inmate aged 30 had been convicted last week and sentenced to 18 months in prison over robberies in 2019. 

It said he had also been charged with murder over a 2022 killing linked to drug trafficking.

A source close to the case, speaking to AFP, identified the inmate as Mohamed A. born in 1994. 

Law and order is a major issue in French politics ahead of next month’s European elections and the incident sparked fierce reactions from politicians, especially the far right.

“It is real savagery that hits France every day,” claimed Jordan Bardella, the top candidate for the far-right National Rally (RN) which is leading opinion polls for the elections.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)