Makeshift boat sinks in English Channel, four people killed and 43 others rescued in freezing waters

While the United Kingdom and France are currently experiencing negative temperatures, an operation was launched by the authorities of the two countries in the Channel, Wednesday, December 14, to the rescue of a “small boat”, term generally used to describe the makeshift boats on board which migrants travel to the English coast. According to a first assessment, four people died and forty-three were rescued.

The British Coast Guard coordinated “a search and rescue operation” off Kent, in the south of England, they announced. The Association for Aid to Exiles Utopia 56 wrote on Twitter that he alerted the Coast Guard at 2:57 a.m. last night after a distress call came from the boat. Ambulance services said they were contacted by the Coast Guard around 4:40 a.m.

Rescue boats and teams from several towns in the south east of England were mobilised, along with two British helicopters and “a French navy helicopter”, according to the Coast Guard. French side, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea adds on Twitter that a patrol boat from the French Navy also came as reinforcements. In London, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was ” aware “ of the shipwreck. “My deepest thoughts go out to everyone involved”she added.