Migrants shot and stabbed in mass Calais violence

FOUR migrants were in a critical condition yesterday after being shot in Calais in what the French government called “unprecedented” violence among those seeking to reach Britain.

The attack came two weeks after Theresa May pledged an extra £44.4million to beef up border security in Calais and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, promised there would be no return to the “jungle” – the notorious migrant camp razed in 2016. Natacha Bouchart, Calais mayor, criticised charities and activists who “manipulate” migrants.

“They are people who live off this. Culturally, they are against the state institutions. They help neither the migrants nor the population,” she said.

The four men, all Eritreans, were shot in the neck, chest, abdomen and spine at a food distribution point. A fifth victim was shot but does not have life-threatening injuries.

In all, some 22 people were admitted to hospital after three huge brawls across the city yesterday between hun- dreds of Afghans and Eritreans camped out in squalid conditions hoping to sneak into the UK as truck stowaways.

Police are searching for a 37-year-old Afghan, a suspected migrant smuggler, over the attack but witnesses reported seeing several people fire shots, according to local prosecutors.

Several others sustained stab wounds. “There were migrants who had no money, the smugglers got angry and fired shots,” said one 18-year old Afghan migrant called Daniel. In response, around 100 Eritreans, armed with iron rods and sticks, then attacked a group of around 20 Afghans at the industrial estate where food was being handed out, prosecutors said. Police intervened to protect the Afghans.

Gérard Collomb, the French interior minister, said the “unprecedented” level of violence was “intolerable”. He urged migrants to stay away from Calais, calling the port town a “mirage” and “a wall into which the migrants are slamming”. The clashes came just two weeks after Mr Macron visited Calais. The president also attacked “certain organisations” for spreading “lies” – referring to volunteers and charities said to be encouraging migrants to enter Britain illegally – and for fabricating claims of police brutality.

He later travelled to Britain, where he agreed to preserve the Le Touquet treaty, which authorises British border checks on French soil.

In return, Mrs May agreed to pay for more fencing, CCTV and detection devices, and to take in more unaccompanied minors.