Twelve (12) people drowned after a boat conveying migrants from Northern France to Britain ripped apart in the English channel on Tuesday.
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| 12 people drowned after a boat carrying migrants from northern France to Britain ripped apart |
According to VOA Africa: “12 people drowned after a boat carrying migrants from northern France to Britain ripped apart in the English Channel Tuesday, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway, authorities said.
“Many didn’t have life preservers in what one official called the deadliest migrant accident in the channel this year.
““Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open,” said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel near the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where a first aid post was set up to treat victims. “If people don’t know how to swim in the agitated waters … it can go very quickly.”
“The mayor said 12 died after initially giving a toll of 13. Lt. Etienne Baggio, a spokesman for the French agency that oversees that stretch of sea, said rescuers pulled a total of 65 people from the waters in a search operation that lasted more than four hours.
“Doctors confirmed 12 died, he said. Baggio called it the deadliest migrant boat tragedy in the English Channel this year.
@AP @VOAAfrica “
