A regional express train (TER) struck several migrants Thursday in Calais (Pas-de-Calais). One man is dead and three others are injured.
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A man died and three others were injured after a TER struck a group of about fifty migrants on Thursday (November 4) in Calais (Pas-de-Calais), France Bleu Nord reported on Thursday. According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office, one of the injured is “in absolute urgency”.
Traffic was interrupted in both directions of traffic. Twelve people were in the Dunkirk-Calais TER at the time of the accident. They were transported to their destination by bus.
The accident occurred in the Beau Marais district, where migrants are used to crossing the railroad tracks to reach their camp. At around 6.30 p.m., the train, which provided the Dunkirk-Calais connection, could not avoid the group which “walked along the railway track”, explained to France Bleu Nord Franck Dhersin, vice-president of mobility, transport infrastructure and ports at the Hauts-de-France regional council.
“Some were on the ballast”, he detailed, assuring that it was Eritreans. Visibility was bad according to the elected: “It was raining very hard, it was dark. The driver did not see the young people on the railroad tracks. The young people did not see the train coming either.” The shocked train driver was picked up by firefighters.
Dramatic results of the TER accident at Beau Marais on the Dunkirk-Calais line. A group of migrants struck 2 lightly injured, 1 seriously injured, 1 death. @hautsdefrance
– Franck Dhersin (@FDhersin) November 4, 2021
“There are currently an incalculable number of migrants arriving in the regions of Calais and Dunkirk”, underlined Franck Dhersin, deploring “more and more accidents and incidents”. “It’s a situation that is becoming unbearable for everyone”, he testified, including the migrants and the inhabitants of the Opal side in this observation.