A man died in an attempt to cross the English Channel on Wednesday, October 30, raising to at least fifty-seven the number of people who died in similar circumstances in 2024, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from the prefecture maritime of the Canal. and the North Sea.
This “adult man” He was in cardiorespiratory arrest off the coast of Hardelot (Pas de Calais), where a dozen people were also in the water, the prefecture explained. He was airlifted before being pronounced dead on the ground, he said, noting numerous attempts to cross that night due to favorable weather conditions.
Important emergency resources were deployed on the seafront, including fire trucks, and around twenty immigrants were taken to building lobbies to warm up, AFP journalists noted. They also saw a punctured black and blue canoe lying on the beach. A group of six soaked men, some wrapped in survival blankets, were also on a bank 3 kilometers offshore.
A member of the Utopia 56 association present at the scene stated that several people were “in severe hypothermia”. She reports a “very complicated start”EITHER “they all ended up in the water”.
“The figure that has caught our attention for several months is one person who dies every five days” In these crossing attempts since the beginning of the year, a coordinator of this association that helps exiles responded to AFP. “The situation is more than dramatic. Rescue services at sea and on land are overwhelmed by events. » He denounces the “disastrous desire to continue down the path of repression”.
