A “professional swimmer” who was crossing the Channel from England to France on Tuesday is missing, said the maritime prefecture, announcing the interruption of the search in the evening after several hours of investigations and heavy means. engaged. “Informed” during the day of this disappearance off Cape Gris-Nez, the operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS) Gris-Nez quickly engaged two French and Belgian military helicopters, a patrol boat from the French Navy, a speedboat coast of the Gendarmerie, and a canoe of lifeguards at sea (SNSM), details in a press release the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar).
But “without additional elements and the probable sector of disappearance having been fully investigated for several hours, the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea”, on “proposal of the CROSS” decided “to interrupt the research by means directed “, she specifies. Contacted, the Premar specified that it had passed “more than six hours” between the first call to the CROSS and the announcement of the end of the research.
The identity and age of this swimmer remain unknown at this stage, said a spokeswoman. This type of “professional” crossing, “compulsorily supervised” by a boat, is only authorized from England and never from France, she added. On Tuesday, the departments of northern France were classified as “yellow” vigilance for thunderstorms by Météo France.
