He probably tried to escape the police checks organized on entering France from Italy. The man in his thirties found dead Monday evening on the burning roof of a TER, at Menton-Garavan station, is “very likely an African migrant”, said Tuesday the director of cabinet of the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes. Benoît Huber added that he had “no other details at this stage”. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the departmental security.
The firefighters intervened shortly after 6 p.m. for the start of a fire on a train providing the link between Ventimiglia (Italy) and Nice. When they arrived, they discovered the body at the level of the pantograph of the wagon, which conducts electricity from the catenary.
The Roya-Citoyenne association, which regularly denounces the “lawlessness” at the Franco-Italian border and “the abuses” against migrants, estimated that “the closing of the borders has killed again in Menton”. “On the roof of a train, a man who was only looking for a better life was horribly electrocuted, bringing the death toll at this deadly border to more than 50,” she added.