Dozens of migrants battled through teargas grenades on a beach near Calais this morning before setting off for Britain.
Extraordinary scenes showed dozens of French police and coastguards looking on as men and some women crammed onto an overloaded boat off Gravelines beach.
More than 50 police tried to stop as many as 200 migrants reaching the sea - and with the aid of teargas grenades stopped more than half.
But they could not stop them all. Soon, large groups including women, and one man hobbling on crutches, made it to the waves.
There, be it ankle deep or thigh deep, they stood – with an officer explaining they remained under strict rules not to apprehend anyone in the sea, however shallow.
