French police are investigating the death of a migrant who died on an overcrowded migrant dinghy in the English Channel on Friday.
Detectives suspect the 34-year-old Afghan national may have been attacked by fellow Channel crossers aboard the vessel before suffering a cardiac arrest that proved fatal.
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Authorities had been tracking the boat overnight before intervening to rescue dozens of those on board, including the Afghan man.
He was among 73 people pulled from the craft.
The man died despite being rushed to hospital by helicopter.
Three others were found injured, including another who required urgent medical care, according to a statement from the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.
Among those pulled to safety were a man found to have sustained stab wounds and two women suffering from burns.
The vessel had set off from Grand-Fort-Philippe, a coastal town close to Calais, packed with no fewer than 110 people.
Coastguard officials had kept watch on the dinghy through the night before the rescue operation was launched.
While 73 of the rescued passengers were returned to French soil, a further 45 migrants who had stayed aboard the craft pressed on across the Channel towards Dover.
Photographs captured crossers being processed by the Border Security Command at the Kent port upon arrival.
This latest death follows a separate murder investigation revealed last month.
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A migrant’s body was discovered on a beach in the Calais area.
Investigators believe those responsible for that killing may have escaped to Britain aboard a small boat.
Friday’s incident underscores the escalating dangers faced by those attempting the perilous Channel crossing.
Violence among passengers on dangerously overloaded vessels an increasing concern for authorities on both sides of the waterway.
Images from Dover showed the arriving migrants being processed at the Border Security Command facility after the remaining 45 passengers completed their journey across the strait.
Migrants were still attempting to cross the Channel on Friday despite bad weather, with heavy thunderstorms and increasingly strong winds making the conditions treacherous.
The latest arrivals take the total number who have crossed so far this year to around 16,500.
A France Maritime Prefecture spokesman said: “Early on the morning of August 28, the Ridens [rescue vessel] picked up 72 migrants requesting assistance. Small boat numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent, and there is more we must do.
“That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes. This government is restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system.”
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