A man has died from a reported cardiac arrest while attempting to reach the UK on a small boat, according to French authorities. Meanwhile in an unrelated development, a migrant was shot and killed at a camp near the French coast, amid rising tensions reported in the camps.
The boat on which the man died had left France's northern coastline on Saturday morning but turned back shortly thereafter. It is unclear whether the man's death on board prompted the boat to return.
The Pas-de-Calais department sub-prefecture told the Press Association (PA) news agency that the the man was found on board in a state of cardiac arrest when the boat in question arrived back.
Emergency services at the scene could not prevent the man from dying shortly thereafter on a beach near the seaside town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that a nurse had attempted to resuscitate the man on the beach, adding however that this attempt was ultimately unsuccessful.
An investigation into the exact circumstances of the man's death has meanwhile been launched, French authorities said.
The death of the man suffering cardiac arrest brings the total death toll of migrants who died while trying to reach the UK to 18 since the beginning of the year, according to information provided by the French Interior Ministry.
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Britain facing unprecedented arrival rates
The same day on the British side of the English Channel, a lifeboat run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) picked up and accompanied a groups of migrants to safety after they had made their voyage across the busy shipping lane.
The migrants were seen huddled together under blankets and orange life jackets aboard the RNLI boat before being taken to the Port of Dover in Kent.
According to numbers given by the UK Home Office, close to 24,000 people have arrived in Britain on small boats so far in 2025, setting a new record.
British and French officials have been working more closely in recent weeks to stop people smugglers from succeeding in taking people from continental Europe to Britain.
Deadly shooting near Dunkirk
Meanwhile, in another unrelated incident involving a migrant unfolded also on France's northern coastline. A male migrant was shot and killed in a camp known as Loon Plage near Grand-Synthe, located close to the town of Dunkirk.
Local reports indicate that the body of the man in his thirties had been riddled by at least seven bullets out of twenty that had been fired from a gun.
Emergency services were unable to save his life, according to reports in the local regional newspaper La Voix Du Nord.
Tensions have been on the rise between various migrant groupings in the area, who mostly survive living in encampments while awaiting irregular journeys to the UK.
Shootings in particular have notably increased in recent months; in June, a gunfight left one person dead and five injured.
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with dpa, PA, AP