7-year-old girl dies after migrants tried to sail to Britain
A seven-year-old girl has died in the Channel after migrants tried to sail to Britain, French authorities have said.
A small boat carrying 16 migrants was headed from northern France to Britain when it capsized, the prefecture in France’s Nord department said.
The boat which ‘was not appropriately sized to carry so many people’ was carrying 10 children in total, as well as a pregnant, woman with officials saying none were wearing life jackets.
It capsized soon after people boarded in the Aa canal a few kilometres from the coast.
The inland accident is the latest in a trend that has seen migrants aiming to get to Britain from France boarding boats away from the coast to avoid stepped-up surveillance there.
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene after a person out for a walk raised the alarm, the prefecture added.
The young girl had died ‘on the spot of the effects of cardio-respiratory arrest,’ prosecutors in Dunkirk told AFP, adding that rescuers’ attempts to resuscitate her had been ‘in vain’.
‘Several people are in custody’ over the incident, they added, with investigators probing possible charges including manslaughter, people-smuggling and forming a criminal gang.
