By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent, in France
Plenty of people have died on small boats trying to cross the Channel. But this was different.
The people who perished in the waters off Wimereux died not just because of the greed of people smugglers, or the inadequacy of their boat. This is a story about violence.
What really killed these people was a hijacking, and by the increasingly dangerous and volatile atmosphere that lingers over the lives of migrants in northern France who are trying to get to Britain.
Often we have heard stories of feuds and of weapons being used between rival groups in camps. Now, it seems that a sense of violent rivalry has spread to the beaches.
We have been told extraordinary details of what happened in the moments before three men, a woman and a young girl died in the cold, dark waters within sight of the promenade.
There were, so we’re told, around 50 people who had paid for a place on board the boat and, as is normal with these crossings, helped to carry it down the beach in Wimereux before getting to the waterfront.
At this point, another group of people emerged from the shadows and pushed their way on to the boat, threatening those on board with sticks and taking over, a man in a balaclava manhandling the controls of the engine.
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