Calais (France) (AFP) - Some 800 to 1,000 migrants tried Thursday to break into the Channel Tunnel near the French port city of Calais in a desperate bid to reach Britain, local officials said, triggering chaotic scenes that saw traffic disrupted and security forces firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.
"We noted the presence of 800 to 1,000 migrants" near the tunnel, a local official told AFP, as a police source described the numbers as "unprecedented" for daytime.
People normally try to cross over under cover of darkness, often having paid exorbitant sums to smugglers to make dangerous, even life-threatening bids to reach the other side of the Channel.
"As they approached the tunnel, several migrants tried hard to slow down the flow of traffic so they could climb into the trucks," the source said.
An AFP journalist saw young men climb on top of trucks heading towards Britain, with some cutting through the tarpaulin covering the vehicles to get inside.
Others could be seen helping their friends climb into the back of a white truck.
Several people succeeded in their bid to enter the Channel Tunnel site, the journalist said.
"Security forces were deployed... objects were being thrown at them, and they had to resort to using tear gas," police said in a statement.
Some 4,500 people fleeing war and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa live in notoriously squalid conditions in a makeshift camp in Calais known as the "Jungle". ...
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