A man’s body was recovered from the Channel near northern French port city Calais on Monday, prosecutors said, the day after three migrants were killed attempting to reach Britain.
‘The victim is a black man aged around 30, yet to be identified at this stage,’ said Patrick Leleu, deputy prosecutor in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
He added that a passer-by had spotted the body in a ‘good state of preservation’ in the water from the beach at Sangatte, just west of Calais, meaning that ‘the question of a link to this weekend’s successful crossing arises’.
The remains were found just over 1,650 feet from the scene of Sunday’s deadly accident, Sangatte mayor Guy Allemand said.
At least three were killed as a boat was setting off for Britain in the early morning, bringing the toll for 2024 to 76.
Several groups of people had attempted to board an already-loaded inflatable ‘small boat’, according to Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant.
The jostling and ‘panicked movement’ that followed left around 40 people in the water, while the overloaded vessel continued its journey.
Three adult men were declared dead after being recovered by a navy helicopter just a few dozen metres from the shore.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI Dover Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel on December 29
Migrants board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on Bleriot beach in Sangatte, near Calais, northern France on October 30, 2024
The remains were found just over 500 metres (1,650 feet) from the scene of Sunday’s deadly accident, Sangatte mayor Guy Allemand said
Alongside these three men, a child is feared missing at sea.
A large-scale rescue operation was launched on a beach in Sangatte, in northern France, after the first alert was raised at about 6.15am on Sunday
Firefighters and law enforcement officers were deployed in vast numbers at the Tom Souville base.
Authorities warned the death toll may rise, as investigations are carried out by prosecutors in Boulogne-sur-Mer and judicial police tried to locate those who provided the boats.
About 50 migrants were taken into the care of French humanitarian charity Utopia 56, and ten people with severe hypothermia are being cared for by firefighters. Four individuals were taken to hospital.
Three unconscious people were pulled from the water but could not be revived, despite efforts by medical teams.
Many survivors reported seeing a child falling in to the sea, and there was no sign of the missing person by Sunday evening.
Célestin Pichaud, coordinator of the Utopia 56 refugee charity, said: ‘People on site immediately told us that a child had fallen into the water, but we had no information about a child being found.’
Life jackets, buoys and an deflated inflatable boat are seen, as a P&O Ferry sails in the background, after a failed attempt by migrants to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, on the beach of Sangatte, near Calais, northern France, on December 4, 2024. File photo
Around 50 migrants have been taken into the care of French humanitarian charity Utopia 56, and ten people with severe hypothermia are being cared for by firefighters, BFM TV reported
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel, on December 29, 2024
A French Navy helicopter was part of the rescue mission being carried out at the beach near Calais, with emergency workers positioned opposite the Fort Lapin campsite in the coastal commune.
A France Bleu report, citing the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea, stated too many people had attempted to climb into the small boat, in what was described as a ‘chaotic boarding’.
Several migrants suffered hypothermia in the extremely cold water while others didn’t have life jackets and were unable to stay afloat.
Two British Border Force vessels could also be seen mid-Channel, according to the Marine Traffic shipping website.
The Typhoon and Volunteer ships as well as the Tacu – which retrieves migrant dinghies once people have been taken on board the catamarans – were in British waters in the middle of the Dover Straits.
Charity worker Flore Judet said: ‘A boat was supposed to set off with sixty people on board, but a group of fifty additional people tried to get on the boat.
‘This created extreme panic, causing many to end up in the water.’
Jacques Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, said an overcrowded boat may have contributed to the tragedy.
He told a news conference: ‘There were more people attempting to board than the boat could hold.’
