Baby dies in migrant crossing after small boat gets into trouble off French coast
A baby has drowned in the English Channel after a small boat carrying migrants capsized on Thursday evening, French authorities have said.
Search and rescue officials from France managed to rescue some 65 people after the vessel got into trouble off the coast of Wissant, just southeast of Calais.
French authorities dispatched a navy vessel, three other ships and a helicopter to deal with the capsize.
Those rescued were taken back to the port at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The public prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-Mer has opened an investigation into the incident, while authorities said searches are ongoing to find any more missing people.
The death comes just weeks after six children, a pregnant woman and five others died in a similar incident in the Channel.
In that sinking, on September 3, more than 50 people were rescued off Cape Gris-Nez – just a couple of miles down the beach from today’s death near Wissant.
Officials said that that boat had been overloaded and that its bottom “ripped open”, while fewer than eight of its passengers had been wearing life jackets.
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One source, the BBC reported, suggested a Syrian smuggler might have been involved.
Local prosecutor Guirec Le Bras said officials understood the victims to have been “primarily of Eritrean origin” at the time.
More to follow…