Chaos in Calais as tear gas is fired at rioting refugees
HUNDREDS of migrants in Calais tried to storm lorries bound for Britain yesterday afternoon.
They used wire cutters to breach security fences – which are supposed to protect drivers from thousands living in the squalid Jungle camp nearby.
French riot police fired tear gas at the men in an attempt to disperse them at around 2pm.
But many were unfazed, with some even smiling as they covered their faces with scarves and continued to slice their way through. Officers wearing helmets and holding shields were then sent in to restore order.
The disturbance broke out after migrants noticed that the queue of lorries on the road leading to the port was stretching past the Jungle.
Lookouts shouted ‘shahina’ – the Arabic word for truck – which prompted hundreds of young men to lay siege to the security fences. They managed to breach the first of two fences before police arrived.
It is unclear whether any got through the second barrier and slipped onto lorries bound for the UK. A source at the camp said: ‘All was peaceful inside the Jungle until a cry of “shahina” echoed around.
‘ Suddenly hundreds of migrants ran out of their huts towards the fence. It was bedlam and incredibly frightening.
‘They were highly organised and didn’t seem to mind that it was in broad daylight with police firing tear gas at them.’
The disturbance comes just days after French lorry drivers, farmers and union officials staged a sit-in on a Calais motorway in protest over the rising levels of violence towards truckers.
Migrants trying to reach the UK are erecting 30 makeshift barricades a day on roads leading to the port, using tree trunks and mattresses to stop the lorries before threatening drivers.
They are also deliberately causing crashes so they can slip onto lorries caught up in the resulting tailback.