Refugee dies in Eurotunnel bid

Signs warn of an anti-intrusion system at Eurotunnel tracks in Sangatte, France

CALAIS, France -- A refugee was electrocuted and died trying to sneak aboard a French freight train bound for Britain via the cross-Channel rail link.

The man, who has yet to be identified, tried to climb aboard a train belonging to French national railway company SNCF around midnight on Friday but in so doing touched the overhead power lines, a police officer said.

"As the train began to move off from the freight station the man climbed aboard one of the wagons and managed to get on the roof where he touched the power lines," the officer said.

"A night watchman saw electric sparks flying and heard shouting," he said, adding the man had been dead by the time the police arrived at the SNCF freight depot in northern France.

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The officer, who had himself been called to the incident, said that just half an hour earlier some 50 people from the nearby refugee camp at Sangatte had tried to board the same train but had been stopped and sent back to the camp.

SNCF had no comment on either incident.

The French authorities have been severely criticised by their British counterparts and the tunnel's operators Eurotunnel for maintaining a refugee camp at Sangatte, just two km (one mile) from the Eurotunnel terminal, and not doing enough to boost security.

Eurotunnel says it intercepted about 18,500 refugees trying to cross through the tunnel in the first half of 2001 alone, and that it has repeatedly asked officials to move the Sangatte refugee centre.

The camp, which houses hundreds of mainly Iraqis and Afghans, is used almost nightly as a staging post for those trying to sneak into Britain.

French officials have said the blame lies with Britain's relatively liberal asylum laws.

In December 500 refugees trying to get to Britain stormed the French entrance to the Channel tunnel in two waves, taking advantage of a two day gap in services on Christmas Day and December 26.

They were eventually rounded up by French police and their British counterparts using sniffer dogs.

None of the refugees reached the UK.