Clashes erupt in France’s ‘Jungle’ camp
CALAIS: French police used tear gas and water cannons to quell clashes with migrants and activists who attempted to hold a banned rally beside the squalid “Jungle” camp in Calais on Saturday.
The confrontation lasted some three hours and police union official Gilles Debove reported 10 officers were hurt, including one who was taken to hospital, and seven police vehicles were damaged.
Tensions mounted in the Jungle, set to be closed by winter, after a demonstration planned on Saturday by a group working with migrants was banned by local authorities.
Then, on Saturday afternoon, “200 people, mainly from the No Borders group and migrants gathered in front of the CRS [riot police]” on the outskirts of the camp, said Etienne Desplanques, an official of the Pas-de-Calais region.
Since the gathering was banned, police sought to push the protesters back inside the camp, he said.
The masked migrants and activists, many of them British, began throwing stones and other objects at police.
Riot police responded by firing about 700 tear gas grenades, Mr Debove said, as well as using a water cannon to disperse the protesters.
The situation had calmed down by the evening.
Saturday’s clashes were the worst since Feb 29 when operations began to dismantle the southern part of the “Jungle”, leaving five people injured.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 migrants are currently living in the camp.