Police examine video of activist slashing channel boat
- British police are looking into a video appearing to show anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas slashing at an inflatable boat in the English Channel.
- The broadcast shows Thomas sailing up to the boat, pulling out a small knife, and making stabbing and slashing movements against the rubber hull.
- Thomas shouted instructions during the confrontation, telling the official to get off the boat.
British police are looking into a video appearing to show anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas slashing at an inflatable boat in the English Channel. The vessel had launched from a beach in Normandy before reaching the UK search and rescue area, where two RNLI lifeboats picked up the passengers and transferred them to a UK Border Force vessel for transport to Dover.
Police Examine Footage of Activist Slashing Channel Boat
The broadcast shows Thomas sailing up to the boat, pulling out a small knife, and making stabbing and slashing movements against the rubber hull. A French official from the coastguard vessel Abeille Liberté was aboard the empty migrant boat mid-Channel at the time.
Live-Streamed Confrontation at Sea
Right, you are on English territory. This is England. This is not France any more.
Daniel Thomas
Thomas shouted instructions during the confrontation, telling the official to get off the boat. While the live stream did not clarify whether the inflatable sustained actual damage, Thomas told his followers that he wanted to ensure the vessel was not taken back to France for reuse.
Clashes Erupt Near Portsmouth Ferry Port
The incident follows separate anti-migrant disorder in Portsmouth, where approximately 200 protesters confronted police in riot gear near the Eastney Landing ferry port area as migrants were brought ashore. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary reported that a handful of officers sustained minor injuries during the clashes, which involved blocked traffic, damaged police vehicles, and officers pushed off motorbikes.
Violence and criminal damage have no part in peaceful protest.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary
Ongoing Investigation and Unrest
Police have launched an investigation to identify individuals responsible for assaults on officers, criminal damage to vehicles, and other offenses, though no arrests had been made at the scene. Spencer Wragg, chair of the Hampshire Police Federation, noted that officers became targets during the unrest. Thomas also livestreamed from the Portsmouth scene, urging supporters to descend on Eastney to block the transport of migrants before coaches carrying the arrivals departed in the early hours of Monday.
