An illegal immigrant from Egypt has been killed this week in the south of France, when police opened fire on a smuggler’s car that crashed into a checkpoint near the Italian border.
The 35-year-old Egyptian national died Wednesday night after Italian authorities alerted French border police about a minibus full of illegal immigrants from Italy traveling near the town of Sospel.
When the driver of the van refused to stop in front of the police, the police chased and eventually a second group of police caught the van, then drove towards the police and forced the police to shoot the car, the newspaper reported. Le Figaro reports.
The van accelerated towards (this) police vehicle,” Nice Public Prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme said in a statement, adding that one of the police officers fired his gun “four times” to stop the van.
After fleeing the police, the minibus headed to Nice’s Les Moulins district was abandoned by the driver and two people sitting in front of the car.
When police found the vehicle, five immigrants were inside, including a 35-year-old Egyptian who had been shot in the head. The Egyptian was immediately rushed to a local hospital, but eventually died from his injuries.
Smugglers killed at least 600 medics this year https://t.co/VKDIr4TF5n
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 31, 2022
Prosecutors launched two investigations into the incident, one for the attempted murder of a public official and one for the self-defense of the police officer who hit the car.
The case comes days after another immigrant died and 17 others were injured in the back of a truck while a smuggler tried to evade police in Greece.
This Egyptian is the last immigrant brought to death by smugglers this year. In the report published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) last month, it was stated that approximately 600 people lost their lives while trying to cross the Mediterranean in the first three months of this year alone.
Source: Breitbart
