Arab News | Two people die trying to cross Channel to UK: French authorities

Lille: Two men died off the French coast overnight from Sunday to Monday while attempting to cross the Channel into Britain, while two women were hospitalised with burns, French authorities said.

The two migrants who died were in their thirties and forties, the prefecture told AFP.

Two women suffering from burns over large areas of their bodies were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

La Voix du Nord, a regional daily newspaper in northern France, said that the burns were caused by a chemical reaction that occurs when gasoline mixes with seawater.

Prosecutors launched an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the two deaths.

Three people including a 10-year-old child died during another attempted crossing last week.

The latest tragedy brings the number of migrant deaths at the Franco-British maritime border to at least 24 since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

France has long been a staging post for asylum seekers without visas hoping to cross the sea to Britain.

They pay smugglers thousands of dollars to board unstable and often overcrowded rubber dinghies to make the hazardous illegal journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.