French police shot dead an Egyptian migrant while trying to stop a van that had rammed through immigration controls on the Italian border, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Reports noted the controversial issue of police violence has been discussed in the French parliamentary election battle after a string of deaths caused by police in recent months.
The 35-year-old Egyptian "died yesterday (Wednesday) in the early evening," deputy Nice prosecutor Parvine Delivery told AFP.
Italian authorities had indicated that the van, carrying illegal migrants in the town of Sospel, was on the French side of the border with Italy.
The van was then found abandoned in Nice after the driver and two passengers fled from the scene.
Last March, a boat carrying about 23 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya with at least 18 Egyptian migrants missing and presumed dead, according to Libyan authorities’ statements.
Libya’s coastguard said that a group of 23 migrants – Egyptians and Syrians – set off from the eastern city of Tobruk. Three migrants were rescued and taken to hospital. Only one body was retrieved and search efforts were continuing, according to the agency.
The shipwreck is the latest tragedy at sea involving migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from the north African nation in a desperate attempt to reach European shores. Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa, and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe.
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