Shootings And Pile-Up In 'People Smuggler' Chase

Police shot at suspected people smugglers during a 125mph car chase that led to a fatal pile-up on a motorway in France.

The chase began in Belgium and ended when the four suspects - in a UK-registered Audi A4 - fled across the French border near Dunkirk.

A Dutch motorcyclist was killed and seven others injured in the resulting crashes.

The pursuit began early on Thursday morning when a lorry driver found 17 migrants in his parked vehicle near Ostend and was threatened with a knife.

When Belgian police intervened, four men suspected of being people smugglers sped away in the Audi.

Armed police ordered them to stop before firing around a dozen bullets at the car as it sped along a road between Nieupoort and Oostduinkerke in Belgium.

Two suspects were hit - one in the shoulder and the other in the stomach.

The Audi became so badly damaged, it was travelling on its wheel rims.

Emergency services dealing with a crash further up the A16 had to dive out of the way as the Audi lost control and smashed into a lorry.

This led to a pile-up of several vehicles, including cars that tried to swerve out of the way.

The motorcyclist died in a third crash when he collided with a lorry.

The four suspects - whose identities have not been released - were taken to hospital.

French newspaper La Voix du Nord said all four are Iraqis who had threatened truckers with knives to make them carry migrants.

Eighteen people were arrested for migrant smuggling near Belgian ports in the first four months of 2016 - compared with 41 in the whole of last year, a judicial source told Reuters.

Belgian officials believe people smuggling from France to Britain via Belgium has increased since London and Paris stepped up security around the Channel Tunnel and ports.

In March, France closed parts of a Calais migrant camp known as The Jungle.

A month earlier, Belgium reimposed frontier controls on the French border in a bid to stop the flow of migrants.