“The shock was very violent” and the man died despite the intervention of the emergency services, announced this Sunday morning the firefighters of Pas-de-Calais.
According to their services, as well as the prefecture of the department, a man of indeterminate age, "probably" a migrant, died hit by a freight train in Calais early this Sunday.
The emergency services "were called at 6:02 a.m. for a male pedestrian, of undetermined age, hit by a freight train at chemin Castre", south-east of Calais, the firefighters said.
When questioned, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture confirmed this death, specifying that it was “probably” a migrant and that an investigation was underway to determine the causes of his death.
Hundreds of migrants, including Iraqis, Iranians, Sudanese and Eritreans, survive in camps on the northern coast of France, hoping to cross into England.
A 25-year-old Sudanese migrant had already died on March 1 after being hit by a train as he walked along a railway track in Marck, a town neighboring Calais.
On March 28, another died after being electrocuted while boarding a train.
On November 4, a train hit a group of four migrants traveling on the tracks between Dunkirk and Calais, causing one death, one serious injury and two minor injuries.
Many accidents in recent months
On January 15, an 18-year-old Sudanese migrant was killed, also in Marck, crushed by the truck he had fallen from while trying to get on it.
A month earlier, a 16-year-old Sudanese teenager had also died there, falling from a heavy weight on the Transmarck business park.
On May 11, a migrant was found "hanged" in a trailer parked in a parking lot in the Transmarck business area, the most likely hypothesis being that of suicide, according to the prosecution.
According to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea, the perilous crossings of the Channel, aboard makeshift boats, also left 31 dead and four missing in 2021, and caused another death in 2022.
