The police launched an evacuation operation on Wednesday morning from a large migrant camp in Loon-Plage, near Grande-Synthe, where clashes have left one dead and three injured since Sunday, said the North prefecture.
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CRS buses blocked access to the camp, and a first bus had arrived in the early morning to convey the migrants, while a few small groups began to leave the area on foot, noted an AFP journalist.
500 migrants going to from England
The operation described as "
sheltering
" by the prefecture targets the Loon-Plage camp, where the prefecture counted some 500 migrants last week, awaiting passage to England.
A migrant was shot dead and another injured on Monday evening near this camp, where on Sunday two migrants were injured, one seriously, in exchanges of gunfire.
On Sunday, volunteers who distribute hot meals there, claimed to have heard bursts evoking Kalashnikovs.
The Dunkirk prosecutor, Sébastien Piève, confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that "
ammunition struck from weapons of war
" were found at Loon-Plage.
"
The particularity of the facts of Sunday and Monday is the seriousness of the injuries
," he noted.
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The Border Police and the judicial police have been seized of the investigations.
Asked about the track of settling scores between smugglers in this camp, Sébastien Piève considered that this constituted "
a hypothesis, but not easy to establish
".
"
There is definitely a background of human trafficking
," he added.