Police use tear gas on 400 Calais migrants as they attempt to storm lorries heading for Britain as tensions flare at French port

• An estimated 400 male migrants attempted to storm lorries in French town
• Police were forced to use tear gas and batons to control the crowds 
• Thousands of migrants are camping out in Calais to try to gain entry to UK 
• Most are thought to have travelled to France from north Africa

Police reinforcement arrived in Calais tonight after a mass attempt by up to 400 illegal migrants to storm lorries heading for Britain.

Tear gas was used on a crowd of mainly young men who were taking part in a ‘clearly coordinated attack’.

Despite their efforts, some of the migrants, thought mostly to be from north Africa, may have managed to stow away on vehicles before they crossed the Channel, officials said.

Earlier this year a group of migrants were seen trying to sneak onto a lorry in the French coastal town. Today police used tear gas to prevent crowds from storming vehicles bound for the UK

‘There were between 300 and 400 of them and they all rushed the lorries at once,’ said a local police spokesman.

‘It was such a serious situation that CRS riot squad officers had to use tear gas and batons – it was a highly charged incident. 

'It happened during the late afternoon.’

'The officer admitted that ‘some may have got aboard lorries’ in the chaos, which follows police complaints that they cannot cope with the rising tide of migrants.

By nightfall tonight reinforcement had been drafted into the port from nearby towns in northern France, including Boulogne and Lille.

Police had no figures for arrests, although it is common practice for anyone involved in such incidents to be allowed to go free.

Few of those involved have any papers, and there is very little the authorities can do with them.

Thousands of migrants have set up camp in the French town in a desperate bid to gain entry to Britain by sneaking onto vehicles planning to cross the Channel 

Last month terrified ferry workers had to use a power hose to keep back a gang of illegal migrants who stormed their way onto a ferry in Calais.

Up to 250 repeatedly tried to get aboard the vessel, and its ramp eventually had to be raised.

Some 100 of them initially forced a gate and climbed over a fence, and then there was a second incident involving around 150 migrants.

The scenes evoked images of the early 2000s when would-be immigrants to Britain regularly tried to storm the entrance to the Channel Tunnel.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart said she could close the port if the situation did not improve

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart said she was sick of the numbers queuing up in northern France to try and sneak across the Channel.

‘I could take the decision to block the port,’ she said, following a meeting with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in Paris in August.

‘I could bring pressure to bear. It would be illegal, but today I want to make a strong gesture towards the British.’

She said that the UK ‘is considered an Eldorado’ by migrants, because of its generous benefits culture.

Around 1200 migrants - mainly Eritreans, Sudanese and Afghans - are currently squatting in disused buildings in Calais, or living in temporary camps – ones which the French regularly raze.

Ms Bouchart also attacked the British for not contributing enough money to security at Calais port.

Fights between rival groups have become common place, as well as disturbances involving people smugglers who charge the equivalent of around £1000 for a passage across the Channel in a lorry or car.

On August 4 Denis Robin, the Pas de Calais prefect, said that the illegal camps around the port would all be destroyed for health reasons.