On December 14, a 22-year-old man shot and killed five people, including two migrants, near Loon-Plage, not far from Calais in northern France. Many people living in the migrant camp where two of the victims were shot were traumatized by the events.
Two days after the killings of December 14, bewilderment and fear still posess the inhabitants of the Loon-Plage camp, in Northern France. That day, two young Kurds from Iran were shot dead by a 22-year-old man on the road that crosses the camp.
The shooter's rampage began in Wormhout, in Flanders between Lille and Dunkirk, where he shot and killed a 29-year-old man on December 14 around 3:15 p.m., "in front of his home," the prosecutor's office said.
The victim ran a road transport company, according to Wormhout town hall. Then around 4 p.m., two security guards aged 33 and 37 who were patrolling their workplace were in turn shot and killed on the outskirts of Loon-Plage towards Dunkirk.
"The shootings took place on the road that people take to go to the distribution sites so many people witnessed the scene," Salomé, coordinator of Utopia 56, told InfoMigrants. Salomé did not give her last name for security reasons.
Read AlsoTwo migrants among five killed on French coast
No psychological support
Despite the impact of these events on the approximately 500 residents of the camp, including many families, no psychological support has been put in place, the head of Utopia 56 explained.
"On Saturday evening, the people in the camp were terrified and we were demanding to be put in a safe place. I think there will be a lot of demand for accommodation in CAES [reception and situation assessment centers, editor's note]," she added.
A large police presence was deployed on site on December 14, with police lights flashing, to block the access to the Mardyck road which leads to the port area where one of the many migrant camps on the coast is also located.
"But on Sunday morning [December 15], everyone left and the camp residents had to get on with their lives," Salomé said, adding that she is now waiting for the results of the investigation to find out the shooter's motive.
Tributes to the victims
The investigation was opened for "murders preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime" and "acquisition, possession, carrying and transport of category A and B weapons," punishable with life imprisonment.
A first tribute to the two victims was paid on December 15 by the camp residents, and red roses were laid at the site where the two migrants were killed. A new commemoration is to take place on Monday evening in Dunkirk, at the Kursaal, on the sea side.
The president (LR) of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, deplored on X a "terrible tragedy" while the outgoing Minister of Solidarity Paul Christophe, previously a member of parliament for the area, expressed his "condolences to the families and loved ones of the five people who died tragically."
Past shootings
The Loon-Plage camp has already been the scene of several shootings in the past, generally due to territorial or community conflicts. On August 30, 2022, shooting broke out there, injuring nine Sudanese people, several of them seriously. The next day, the camp was dismantled by the police, before immediately reforming.
On September 6 and 7 of the same year, two other shootings were reported. A young Iraqi was rushed to hospital after being shot in the head. The day before, another shooting had already left two people injured, including a 32-year-old Eritrean.
"There are power struggles, territorial disputes... But, for us, these are not score-settling between ordinary migrants because there is no hostility between communities. We see it clearly on the ground: everyone mixes. The conflicts are between the smugglers," Claire Millot, from the Salam association, explained to InfoMigrants last year.
"It's more about controlling areas of beaches or dunes," in an area where many depart from France to England. But, Millot explained, "the people in the camps are not violent people, they are people who have fled violence in their countries."
In October 2023, the Loon-Plage camp was dismantled during a "sheltering" operation carried out by state services. Nearly 2,000 people were evacuated but, as is often the case, they returned to the site a few days later.
Read AlsoChannel crossings: 'More people die when they set sail than on the open sea'