This is the moment a migrant dinghy forced a flotilla of 'Little Ships' commemorating the legendary Dunkirk evacuation to make way - flanked by a French navy boat.
Commemorations of the 85th anniversary of the heroic effort to save British, French and other Allied soldiers from incoming German troops kicked off yesterday - but the pleasure cruisers and speedboats had to make way for an unlikely guest.
Their 45-mile trip across the English Channel, recreating the noble effort of May 1940, was disrupted by a demand from Border Force and the French navy to create a one-mile exclusion zone through which a migrant boat could ass.
Images show the dinghy, packed with people who appeared to be wearing lifejackets, as they were closely followed by a smaller craft and what appeared to be a hulking Loire-class French navy vessel.
Chris Cox, coordinator of the flotilla event commemorating Operation Dynamo, said of the unexpected interruption: 'There was a migrant boat in the water that was being covered by a French naval vessel. As is good proportion, we steered clear and let the authorities look after it.
