'It is shameful' French town demands action after drownings

The local fishing crews had been finishing their long night's work catching lobster and crab off the northern French port of Boulogne-sur-Mer when the mayday alert came in.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Axel Baheu and Gaëtan Baillet immediately rushed their boats to assist in the rescue operation. A small inflatable dinghy had ripped apart in the Channel with at least 60 people, mostly from Eritrea, on board, hoping to reach England.

What the fishers saw would haunt them for ever, they said.

Twelve people died in the disaster on Tuesday; at least half of them were under 18, and 10 were women. Baheu, in his lobster boat, the Murex, pulled three bodies from the water. He told the Voix du Nord newspaper how his crew had wept as they had pulled in the casualties and seen their inadequate safety precautions.

One girl, who Baheu estimated was aged between 15 and 20, had carefully placed her phone in a plastic wallet, firmly secured around her neck. The phone continued to ring as her body was brought to shore. Only eight out of the 60 or more people on board had been wearing lifejackets.

Baillet, who had never pulled a body from the water before, said the dinghy was going down rapidly: "Only a little bit at the back was left, the rest was sinking."