A migrant was fatally hit by a freight train on Tuesday morning January 3 in Calais, during a suicidal act according to witnesses on the spot, said a police source and associations supporting exiles.
“
Around 10:40 a.m., a migrant was fatally hit by a freight train
,” a police source told AFP, confirming information from the newspaper
La Voix du Nord
.
Witnesses "
speak of a visibly voluntary act and heard the train horn sound
", added this source.
suicide potential
The shock occurred on a level crossing on the outskirts of Calais, said the firefighters, near a point of distribution of meals to exiles flocking to the north coast to try to reach the English coast.
A volunteer “
told me that she saw the guy throw himself under the train.
She honked to warn him of the arrival of the train, but he waved to say goodbye and threw himself
"on the rails," Claire Millot, head of the Salam association, told AFP.
“
He was someone she spotted was not well
,” she added.
Read alsoFaced with the specter of a new “jungle” in Calais, the government decides to accommodate migrants
According to a tweet from the association Utopia 56, the victim is a “
Sudanese man in his thirties
”.
Confirming the death of a man "
may be a migrant
", the prosecutor of Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Guirec Le Bras, announced the opening of an investigation "
to find the causes of death including in particular hearings of witnesses to know the precise circumstances
" of the facts.
The train driver was "
very shocked
", according to the firefighters of Pas-de-Calais.
On May 11, also on the outskirts of Calais, a migrant was found hanged in a truck trailer parked in a transit area for heavy goods vehicles en route to England, the most likely hypothesis being that of suicide, according to the floor.
More than 45,000 migrants managed to reach the English coast in 2022 by crossing the Channel on makeshift boats, a record figure since the start of the phenomenon in 2018.
