French police have been reported to their country’s human rights watchdog after using a knife to deflate a small boat packed with migrants bound for England.
Dramatic scenes filmed at Oye-Plage, a beach near Calais, on Sunday morning show an officer slashing at an inflatable before it collapses.
About 25 young men wearing bright orange life jackets are then forced off the craft and retreat back onto the beach.
Officers who sprinted up to the dinghy are seen wading into shin-depth water but it is unclear from the video whether it was actually afloat.
A spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais gendarmerie said the vessel was
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