GETTY Migrants have repeatedly complained of police brutality in Calais

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The attackers, sometimes masked and armed with clubs, brass knuckles, pepper spray and knives, target migrants during the night, according to accounts from refugees and charity groups. Migrants claim they have been the targets of escalating raids by organised gangs - sometimes dressed in uniforms - in the past few weeks. Children as young as 10-years-old have been attacked, according to local reports, which come amid growing calls to raze the notorious camp to the ground.

Desperate migrants have also accused local French police of failing to protect them from violence and even carrying out their own assaults as racial tensions in the embattled port town reach boiling point. In recent days police have arrested seven men armed with iron bars and extendable batons for a suspected attack on five Iraqi Kurds at Loon-Plage, a port town between Calais and Dunkirk. The men, some of whom said they sympathised with far-right movements in Calais, faced charges of forming a group to commit violence, sad Dunkirk prosecutor Eric Foulard. Mr Foulard said: "The ideas they peddle are that there are too many migrants in France.”

PA Police regularly clash with migrants attempting to smuggle themselves into Britain

There was an intent to kill in certain cases Raymond Blet

Meanwhile Marianne Humbersot, the head of refugee charity Appel Calais, said she was filing a dozen complaints on behalf of migrants - five for violence by militia and eight at the hands of the police. Ms Humbersot said: "I have a 13-year-old who had his foot broken. And 10 days before being attacked by police, he had his nose broken by racists.” The charity leader said her organisation had “50 witness accounts of violence” committed by “police and citizens in militia groups”. Ms Humbersot added: “We are talking about injuries that are life-threatening. Not just bruises but also stabbing, strangling and beating with metal sticks. “These attacks are against men, women and children.“

GETTY Migrants have reported being attacked by militia groups in the past few weeks

Raymond Blet, a volunteer at Appel Calais, revealed: “There was an intent to kill in certain cases”. Another aid worker - Amin Trouve-Baghdouche from Doctors of the World - said “organised groups” claiming to be police had attacked migrants in the town and the nearby shanty town. However, many illegal migrants fear reporting the incidents over fears doing so could result in them being deported or detained by French authorities.

Evicted Calais migrants sleep rough in Paris Wed, August 3, 2016 Hundreds of migrants evicted from the Calais Jungle camp sleep rough in Paris. Play slideshow Caters News Agency 1 of 191 Calais camp is dismantled as resident set fires and throw stones at Police

Locals have expressed concern about their children’s safety and have said the migrant crisis in Calais is crippling the town’s economy, which heavily relies on tourism from Britain. Sandrine Desert, the founder of citizen group Les Calaisiens en Colère, said: "The migrants are more and more violent. They are blocked here. It's a dead-end. "We are the forgotten ones ... They always talk of migrants, but we are also in distress." The revelation of militia violence comes after the French government announced plans to bulldoze half of the Calais Jungle. Between 800 to 1,000 migrants will be forced to leave their makeshift homes, Calais prefect Fabienne Buccio confirmed.

Migrants have long complained about police brutality in the Calais Jungle, but reports of violence carried out by militia-style groups of citizens opens up a new dimension of violence. Authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a potentially toxic cocktail of frustration and anger brewing among Calais residents, sparking fierce face-offs between pro and anti-migrant groups. Far-right groups such as the Front National (FN), who are known for their tough anti-migrant stance, have also benefited from a surge of popularity following the the Paris attacks in November.

PA Marianne Humbersot and Raymond Blet said they have received dozens complaints about violence