Shocked and bruised, a survivor of a shooting at a migrant camp near Dunkirk on Saturday has told Sky News how he saw his friends murdered by “the angel of death”.
Two migrants and two security guards were shot dead by a 22-year-old French gunman at a migrant camp in Loon-Plage, with one other victim targeted in a nearby town, according to local media.
The two migrants had just returned from the coast after being rescued in the middle of the English Channel after a failed attempt to reach Britain.
Matin, a 25-year-old Kurdish migrant, said that “a guy came with a shotgun and showered us with bullets”.
One of the two migrants who were shot dead
When we asked if anything had provoked the attack, he said he did not know any reason. “The gunman came and, all of sudden, drew a shotgun.
“Initially, we thought he would fire in the air and then he loaded the gun and aimed at us. We saw Azrael [the Islamic Angel of Death].
“We saw death with our own eyes. It was God’s will that we survived. In one day, we saw death twice.”
The two men, named Hamid and Hadi, were walking along with their two friends, Rashad and Matin. All four, aged around 25, were Kurds who had spent around a month living in camps near the northern French coast.
Sky News spoke to Matin by telephone after he gave evidence to the French police, describing a green car used by the killer, who he described as a white French man wearing glasses.
“He fired around 15 bullets; Hamid was hit in the head and Hadi was also hit. Rashad was shot at twice, but he wasn’t hit. We managed to hide.”
Matin said the four men had previously spent eight hours at sea trying to get to Britain on a dinghy that was palpably unsuitable. The boat set off with 85 people on board before, he said, the police took 50 people off.
Sky News understands the migrants who died were called Hamid and Hadi, and had tried to cross the Channel to the UK earlier on Saturday
“We reached international waters,” said Matin, “then our dinghy fell apart and we almost drowned. After five minutes in the water, thank God the police reached us – we had no life jackets.
“They pulled us out of the water, we were soaking wet. We got back to the land and went to collect clothes [from a charity] as our clothes were wet. We were dying of cold.
“We were close to the camp when this man turns up and gets out of the car. He fired at us. Me and Rashad were not hit. Hamid was hit in the head and Hadi in his stomach.
“I have to talk to their families, but I don’t know what to say. Hamid had sold his house to get to Europe. Me, I feel hollow inside now.
“I have seen death twice in a day and it’s too much. I don’t know what to do.”