Man dies trying to cross English Channel to the UK
When the boat arrived at the beach, a man was found on board in cardiac arrest, the Pas-de-Calais department's sub-prefecture told the PA news agency.
Despite emergency services intervening at the scene, the man died soon after.
According to UK Home Office provisional statistics, almost 24,000 people have arrived on small boats in the UK in 2025.
An investigation is under way under the authority of the prosecutor to determine the circumstances of the man's death, the French authorities confirmed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Why France is cracking down on topless tourists
Police have been sent out to patrol France's seaside promenades. Not to chase hardened criminals – but to look for bare-chested tourists. From Les Sables-d'Olonne to Cassis, and in a growing number of coastal towns, local authorities are introducing by-laws banning shirtless men from wandering around in public. The fines are €150 if you're caught walking from the beach to the bakery in swim shorts and flip-flops, but no shirt. Uniformed gendarmes have been instructed to enforce the rules. Posters have gone up at beaches. Police are stopping tourists, handing out tickets and giving lectures. The summer's great threat to republican order, it seems, is the male torso. 'We are not nudists' declared Yannick Moreau, the mayor of Les Sables-d'Olonne, defending the new rules he's implemented as a matter of 'respect' and 'civic-mindedness'. In Cassis, on the Mediterranean coast, the town hall says the aim of the new measures is to 'preserve the elegance of the town'. Even the slogans are sanctimonious – 'Du sable à la ville, on se rhabille', that's 'when going from the beach to the town, we get dressed again.' One mayor, asked if the policy might be seen as heavy-handed, replied simply 'we're not asking people to wear a suit and tie, just a T-shirt'. There's something oddly comforting about it all if it were not for the bigger picture. The French state, for all its troubles, can still mobilise gendarmes to patrol the promenade, hand out fines and preserve a certain idea of public decency. Shirtless tourists, at least, the authorities know how to handle. But when it comes to the country's real problems with violent crime and insecurity, gang warfare, and lawless enclaves, the state increasingly looks powerless. The front page of yesterday's Journal du Dimanche showed a blood-red map of France, marking dozens of towns now gripped by a violence which was once thought to be limited to the banlieues of large towns and cities. Knife attacks, shootings, cars set alight, gang reprisals, even mortar fire. In Béziers, Blagnac, Albi, Lunel, Cavaillon, Metz, the gendarmes are not chasing bare-chested tourists, they're dodging bullets. Police in the small town of Carpentras in the Vaucluse won't go at all into certain housing estates without significant reinforcements. In Béziers, mayor Robert Ménard says his town is experiencing a wave of gangland violence. 'Eighty per cent of the troublemakers,' he told the Journal du Dimanche, 'come from immigration'. In Tarn, the body of a 22-year-old was found after what police believe was a drug-related execution. In Limoges, teenagers are barricading streets and launching attacks on emergency services. In Clermont-Ferrand, officers responding to a noise complaint were ambushed with iron bars. In Pontarlier, grenade blasts and gunfire now rattle quiet residential streets. These are far from isolated incidents. According to Ofast, France's anti-drug agency, the spread of organised crime into provincial towns is now 'deeply entrenched.' Cocaine is no longer a big city vice. It's a national industry. In response, some towns have tried imposing curfews. Others have begged for more police or tighter sentencing. What they often get is silence or lectures about the 'complex roots' of delinquency. Meanwhile, in places like Les Sables-d'Olonne, the authorities continue to defend the €150 fine for not wearing a shirt. The contrast is telling. The state can still act when it wants to. It can deploy uniformed officers to enforce swimwear etiquette. It can issue municipal by-laws about torsos and flip-flops. But faced with criminal networks, urban warfare and a judiciary that barely functions, it hesitates, defers or looks away. It's easier to fine a tourist without a shirt than to deal with drug traffickers on a housing estate. It's human nature to follow the path of least resistance. Policing beachwear is entirely risk-free. The new measures in seaside towns play well with local voters nostalgic for order. There is no national scandal, no debate in the Assemblée Nationale, no risk of accusations of stigmatising anyone, and no complaints from the hard left. It's public order in symbolic form alone: controlled and deeply unserious. But the deeper problem isn't symbolic. It's structural. Robert Ménard has asked to further arm Béziers' municipal police dealing with increasingly violent heavily armed gangs. The state said no. Local prosecutors complain they lack the tools to put violent offenders behind bars. The interior minister announces new plans every few months, but sentences are rarely served in full. There isn't enough space in prisons, not enough police, and not enough will to confront what everyone now sees. The France that worked, quietly, efficiently, locally, is faltering. It has become a theatre of control. You can see it clearly in the small and medium-sized towns that were once the last bastion of republican order. These were places where the state still worked. Where people trusted the police, the mayor, the courts. That's now all slipping away. In town after town, people no longer feel safe. France still knows how to police the small stuff. It can stop a man buying a baguette without a shirt. It can fine him on the spot, with a polite smile and a printed receipt. But when it comes to the real collapse, of order, of confidence, of the state's ability to impose the law where it truly matters, the state shrugs, retreats, or launches yet another working group.
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Family of missing Brit to fly to France for search after unsettling phone call
The family of missing Belfast man Robert Kincaid are racing to Paris in France after the 38-year-old disappeared after missing his flight to Dubin earlier this month The family of a missing man is flying to France in a frantic bid to track him down after he mysteriously vanished at a busy airport before strangers answered his phone. Robert Kincaid, 38, from the Tullycarnet area of East Belfast, hasn't been seen or heard from in 10 days after failing to catch his connecting flight from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. The oil rig worker was travelling to Dublin on July 17 after a stint offshore in Benin, West Africa, but he never made it onboard his final flight. Since then, there's been radio silence. Worry turned to alarm when Robert's family tried to FaceTime him later that night and were shocked when the call was answered by a man they didn't recognise. Even more chillingly, a second attempt the next day connected to a woman with a crying baby in the background before the phone went dead for good. Now, his devastated family is preparing to head to France themselves in a last-ditch effort to find him. Speaking to Belfast Live, Robert's brother Louis said the whole ordeal has been a waking nightmare. He said: 'Robert had been working on an oil rig in Benin and was due to fly back on July 17. He missed his flight at ten past seven from Charles De Gaulle Airport, and now his phone is completely off.' The last contact came just after 8pm that night where Robert admitted he'd had a few drinks after missing his flight. But at 10pm, the situation took a chilling twist. His family said: 'We tried FaceTiming him and it was answered by a black man in what looked like a corrugated hut. He spoke broken English and said the phone battery was dying and then the call cut out. The next day, a woman answered with a baby crying in the background. Since then, nothing. No calls. No texts. Just silence.' The family has filed a missing person report with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and has been in touch with the British Embassy in Paris, but so far, they've been left in the dark. 'Everything's going through Interpol, but we've had no updates,' Louis said. 'The Embassy says Robert's not in any hospitals or medical centres, but they can't tell us much more. We are up to high dough with worry. This is completely out of character – he always keeps in touch.' Determined to do something, the family is now preparing to fly to France on Wednesday to launch their own search, despite knowing how overwhelming the task ahead is. Robert's brother continued: 'It'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But we can't just sit here and do nothing.'
Belfast Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Minute's silence held at Croke Park for mother and children killed in Maguiresbridge
Vanessa Whyte and her two teenage children were honoured with a minute's silence at Croke Park on Sunday, just moments before throw-in at the All Ireland senior football final between the Donegal and Kerry men's teams. Ms Whyte (45), her son James (14) and daughter Sara (13) died following a fatal shooting at her Maguiresbridge home in Co Fermanagh earlier this week. Emergency services were called to the address via a 999 call from within the house, shortly before 8.30am on Wednesday morning. Ms Whyte, who was recently promoted to a senior veterinary role within the Department of Agriculture, was pronounced dead at the scene alongside Sara. James later passed away from his injuries at South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen. The PSNI confirmed their lines of investigation include a suspected triple homicide and attempted suicide. Maguiresbridge vigil takes place as book of condolence opens at young shooting victims' former school Ian Rutledge – father to the teenagers and husband to Ms Whyte – is believed to have suffered self-inflicted gunshot wounds and is currently in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He is the main suspect in the killings. On Sunday afternoon, just before the Irish national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, was played at Croke Park, an image of Ms Whyte, Sara and James was displayed on the stadium's main large screen, and the crowd led a minute's silence tribute for the three family members, who were dedicated players and fans of the GAA. Text on the screen at Croke Park read: 'Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha' – which translates from Irish into English as: 'May their souls be seated on God's right hand.' All three were 'beloved and active' members of St Mary's Maguiresbridge Gaelic Football Club and Lisbellaw Hurling Club. The hurling club said that Ms Whyte was 'first and foremost a devoted mum to James and Sara and they were the centre of her world'. A spokesperson added: 'James came to us at four years old, miles ahead of his peers in his ability and skill. He was a quiet, cheeky lovable rogue and at the same time a leader for his teammates as their captain a number of times over the years. He came up through the ranks with a small group of very close friends who forged a bond that will be forever remembered. 'Sara followed up a year later and even when she was the only girl on the team this didn't phase her, she could hurl with any of them. She was quiet but by no means a pushover and could stand up for herself on the pitch. She was gutted when the rules meant she couldn't continue to hurl after under 12 and there was no camogie for her to play. "Even after finishing playing, she was the boy's main supporter at every game, pucking the ball alongside them. Every function or event we held she was always Mam's right hand woman ready to run here and there as needed. We will all miss her quiet presence and lovely smile.' Meanwhile, a separate tribute from St Mary's GFC reads: 'Vanessa's devotion to her family and our games was well known, but to say she wore her heart on her sleeve seems like an understatement in Vanessa's case. Vanessa's heart was there for everyone to see each and every time James and Sara would take to the pitch. She had a passion for our games that encompassed everything good about the GAA showing dedication, sportsmanship, and camaraderie, and it was clear to see how Vanessa instilled these same values in her children. 'Captain of our U14 team this year, James' energy and drive was the heartbeat of our team and he had the confidence to be vocal and show leadership to younger team members. "During games his enthusiasm and strength of character was only echoed by that of Vanessa and Sara who would inevitably be cheering him on from the sideline. At training, those of us lucky enough to be involved would see James the joker. "His playfulness and sense of humour may have earned his teammates more push-ups than they would've like on occasion, but his light-hearted nature and kindness always enhanced team morale and made our time together all the more enjoyable and memorable. 'A part of our ladies club, Sara displayed a mix of quiet resolve with dogged determination. An exceptionally well behaved girl, Sara was a joy to be around and always had a smile on her face. Like Vanessa and James, Sara shared a love of all things GAA and their beloved County Clare, a regular source of playful goading, which we will now forever miss. 'Our club has lost 3 treasured members, and our community has lost 3 great personalities. It will take time to come to terms with this loss and our thoughts and prayers are with all those whose lives they have touched.' Ms Whyte was originally from Co Clare, and was an avid fan of its inter-county hurling team also. A prayer service will take place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ms Whyte's home village of Barefield tonight at 7pm.
