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POLICE

French teen shot dead in gunfight with police

An 18-year-old girl was killed in a gun battle with police in southeastern France in the early hours of Wednesday, prosecutors said, the latest in a nationwide string of violent traffic stops.

Published: 5 October 2022 10:20 CEST
French teen shot dead in gunfight with police
A photograph shows a French police logo on a police car (Photo by FRED TANNEAU / AFP)

The girl was the passenger in a vehicle whose driver refused to stop when ordered and fired shots at officers, Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant said in a statement.

She “died of the effects of a shot that hit her in the neck” when police returned fire, Vaillant added, while the wounded driver was brought to hospital.

The male driver had accelerated towards the officers when they got out of their vehicle to stop the car in the Grenoble suburb of Saint-Martin-d’Heres, the prosecutors said.

He lost control of the car following the exchange of fire and was captured while attempting to flee on foot.

France’s national internal affairs body, the IGPN, is probing the shots fired by the police, while the driver is under investigation for attempted murder of a public official.

More than 10 people have been killed in 2022 alone in France in situations where drivers have refused to halt when ordered by police.

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POLICE

Five die attempting Channel crossing, say French police

At least five people, including a child, died overnight during an attempt to cross the Channel from France to Britain, a French police source said on Tuesday.

Published: 23 April 2024 10:54 CEST
Five die attempting Channel crossing, say French police

The source, who did not wish to be named, said the circumstances of their death around the beach in the town of Wimereux, close to the resort of Boulogne-sur-Mer, were not immediately clear.

It is just the latest such tragedy as people, many from the Middle East and Africa, attempt the perilous sea crossing in the hope of reaching Britain.

On March 3rd, a seven-year-old girl drowned in the capsizing of an overcrowded migrant boat in the Aa canal, around 30 kilometres from France’s northern coast.

People attempting to reach Britain have increasingly been boarding boats on inland waterways to avoid stepped-up patrols on the French coast.

In late February, a 22-year-old Turkish man died and two more people went missing in the Channel off Calais.

In January, five people including a 14-year-old Syrian died in Wimereux as they waded through chilly seawater to reach a boat off the coast.

Twelve people lost their lives last year trying to cross the Channel, French authorities say.

British officials processed 5,373 arrivals landing on the shores of southeast England in the first three months of this year after crossing the Channel in small vessels, the British interior ministry says.

The news of the latest migrant deaths comes after controversial UK government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Monday.

The United Nations and Europe’s highest rights body have urged Britain to scrap the plan.

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