Dunkirk migrants shot in people smuggling dispute

Two migrants in the French port of Dunkirk have been shot and critically injured in an apparent dispute among people smugglers.

Fighting broke out inside the Grande-Synthe camp in Dunkirk on Monday night, with several shots fired.

The two migrants, who are both believed to be Iraqi, have been taken to the main trauma centre in Dunkirk.

Local officials report a number of disturbances at the camp in recent days.

The area is home to around 800 people, who camp out there as they wait to be smuggled on small boats to the UK.

Police were also called to the camp in the early hours of Monday morning after another fight broke out. Two migrants were injured and hospitalised, but it is not known whether that disturbance involved firearms.

Witnesses inside the camp during the latest trouble reported hearing a barrage of shots ring out, before police and then medics, including an air ambulance arrived on scene.

Grande-Synthe, also known as the Liniere camp, is on the road between Dunkirk and Calais.

Most of those in the camp are reported to have come from North Africa and the Middle East.

The area forms one of the largest migrant camps in France and is reportedly controlled by Kurdish people smuggling gangs, who are known to regularly use violence against those they are in dispute with.