POLICE are investigating after a far-right activist filmed himself slashing a dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was still onboard.
Hundreds of anti-immigration activists went to Gosport in England on Tuesday night after far-right campaigner Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, filmed himself going out to sea to try to intercept a dinghy carrying dozens of migrants.
Some of the protesters in Gosport wore black clothing and face coverings, and chanted “send them back”, wrongly assuming the boat would be guided to the Hampshire coast.
It in fact docked in Dover, Kent, at around 12.30am on Wednesday after 51 migrants on board reportedly refused help from a French ship and spent 33 hours at sea.
Thomas – who previously spent two years in prison for attempted kidnapping – spent Tuesday afternoon in a small boat on the Channel, filming himself tracking two dinghies as they made their way from France to the UK.
As rescue workers are seen assisting the people on the dinghies onto the rescue boats, Thomas approached one of the inflatable dinghies and shouted: "Let's get rid of that boat."
He then filmed himself slashing the side of an inflatable boat while a member of a rescue team was still on board, then sailing away shouting "traitors".
Police confirmed they are "conducting inquiries" into the footage, which was livestreamed to approximately 100,000 viewers.
Six people were arrested following the anti-migrant protest.
Hampshire police said two men from Salisbury, aged 19 and 36, had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass; and four people from Gosport – two men aged 33 and 67, and two women aged 31 and 32 – were held on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
The 67-year-old was also held on suspicion of careless driving.
