Extra police as 22 hurt in Calais migrant clashes

POLICE reinforcements have arrived in the French port city of Calais after clashes among migrants left 22 people injured, with the government warning of more potential violence among those seeking to cross into the UK.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said five of the victims were injured by gunfire in Thursday’s fighting. Speaking in Calais, he blamed migrant traffickers and “totally organised” gangs for the violence.

Police are seeking a shooting suspect but have made no arrests, he said.

Firearms are rare among migrants, and the shootings represent the most serious clash in recent times among migrants around Calais.

Two extra police units were arriving yesterday, Mr Collomb said. He added that while in the past such violence was spontaneous, it appears to be growing more organised. He said local authorities have dismantled six migrant trafficking networks already this year, compared to 20 in all of 2017.

The prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais region said the gunfire was the culmination of a showdown between Afghan and Eritrean migrants, fighting each other with sticks and stones, after a meal distribution near the Calais hospital.

In a second confrontation, up to 200 Eritrean migrants cornered 30 Afghans near the former site of a makeshift migrant camp that housed thousands of people before it was evacuated and destroyed in 2016.

Mr Collomb said the government will start meal distribution outside Calais in the coming two weeks, instead of leaving it to aid groups, in an effort to stop feeding spots becoming fixed nodes of tension.