Two UK-bound migrants ‘kneecapped’ in a suspected punishment shooting by a people smuggling gang
TWO UK-bound migrants have been “kneecapped” in a suspected punishment shooting by a people smuggling gang.
The unnamed Sudanese teens were attacked in Calais on Sunday, allegedly by a group of Afghans.
But after being treated in hospital for knee and thigh wounds, the pair refused to co-operate with cops and were free to carry on trying to cross the English Channel.
Both were caught up in the increasingly brutal gang war involving people smugglers providing £1,000-a-head trips to asylum seekers heading to Britain on small boats.
A 16-year-old was the most seriously injured, with a gunshot wound to the knee.
A French judicial source said: “He was shot on a road that runs alongside Calais ferry port. Afghans are thought to have punished him — perhaps because he owed them money for his sea journey.
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“After being released from hospital, he was free to carry on trying to get to England.”
The second victim, 18, was wounded in the right thigh and found hiding around three miles away from the Calais port.
He was treated in hospital but then left without giving any information on the motives or the exact sequence of events, according to public prosecutor Guirec Le Bras.
He said: “It’s the same case, because the events unfolded at the same time. The shots came from a perpetrator or a group who appear to be the same.”
Two men died on Sunday when their small boat capsized between Calais and Dunkirk, as 703 other migrants successfully crossed the Channel.