
This is the moment a mass brawl broke out as migrants in Paris attacked each other with sticks - hours after authorities moved in to smash up an illegal city centre camp.

Pictures show men lunging at each other with makeshift clubs last night next to a row of tents in the Stalingrad district of the French capital.

Amid chaotic scenes, gangs of men were seen brandishing pieces of wood and squaring up for a street battle.

The violence unfolded just hours after demolition workers supported by riot police began smashing up an illegal camp full of UK-bound migrants in Paris.

It also came in the wake of the destruction of the Calais Jungle which saw refugees transported around the country

Dramatic pictures captured the moment a mass brawl broke out as migrants in Paris attacked each other with sticks

Pictures show men lunging at each other with makeshift clubs next to a row of tents in the Stalingrad district of the French capital last night

Violence: Amid chaotic scenes, gangs of men were seen brandishing pieces of wood and squaring up for a street battle

It is not yet known what caused the fight in Paris.

There had already been scuffles on Monday as mainly Afghans and Eritreans tried to save their possessions during the raid, which started soon after 8am.

It followed thousands of migrants arriving in the French capital following the razing of the Calais Jungle refugee camp last week.

While some 5000 Jungle residents agreed to be bused to resettlement centres around France, many others headed off independently, saying they still wanted to get to Britain.

Up to 3000 set up tents on the pavements around the Stalingrad Metro station, which is close to the Gare du Nord Eurostar hub in the north of Paris.

The cause of the violence is not yet known, but it involved large groups of migrants camping in the Stalingrad district of Paris

Mass brawl: A group of men could be seen lunging at each other with long pieces of wood over night in Paris

The violence unfolded just hours after demolition workers supported by riot police began smashing up an illegal camp full of UK-bound migrants in Paris

The violence came in the wake of the destruction of the Calais Jungle which saw refugees transported to different areas of the country and the squalid encampment flattened

There had already been scuffles on Monday as mainly Afghans and Eritreans tried to save their possessions during the raid, which started soon after 8am

The brawl is believed to have taken place close to the Stalingrad Metro station in the north east of the French capital

Shortly before yesterday's clearance French president Francois Hollande said: 'We won't tolerate the camps any longer.'

Referring to the Paris clearance, Mr Hollande said: 'We are going to carry out the same operation as in Calais.'

CRS riot police around Stalingrad said there would be a 'gradual operation' which is likely to go on all week until all the camps are gone.

Meanwhile, the first ever official centre for refugees in Paris is due to be opened by the city's Socialist council later this week.

Battle: The violence appeared to start near a group of tents in the Stalingrad area and spread on to the road

Ugly scenes: Men attacked each other with makeshift clubs during a night of violence in the French capital

Squaring up: Gangs of men could be seen brandishing sticks as tensions boiled over at the makeshift camp in the Stalingrad district

The £6m facility is also close to the Eurostar hub, and will have beds for 400 men.

But local residents and business owners say it will attract people smugglers, and other criminals.

Jean Brossard, who has been living in the area for 30 years, said: 'None of us asked for an immigrant centre on our doorsteps.

'Everybody in the area is complaining. If these men want to go to England, then send them to England.'

Others have accused the Socialists of tokenism, saying they are simply opening the camps as a humanitarian gesture that will have no long term effect on Europe's immigrant crisis.

CRS riot police around Stalingrad said there would be a 'gradual operation' which is likely to go on all week until all the camps are gone

The men were seen fighting next to a covered area where tents had been erected. The violence happened days after the Calais Jungle was cleared by authorities

Retreat: A group of migrants carrying pieces of wood were seen walking away from the scene after the brawl

Police had earlier rounded up migrants and cleared away some of their tents in a makeshift camp in Paris as part of French government efforts to tackle the migrant crisis

Earlier moves to demolish a camp near the Stalingrad subway station, were marked by tension and confusion

Police and regional officials said the operation was aimed at verifying migrants' documents and sanitary conditions. They insisted it was not a full-scale evacuation, though city officials cleared away some tents along a canal

Tensions have been running high ever since the Calais Jungle was cleared by French authorities just days ago

The official centre, which will include a football pitch, will only allow residents to stay for between five and 10 weeks, and is likely to shut down within two years.

Another centre for women with children will also open in the Paris suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine later this year, or early next, but it too will only have a limited capacity of 350 temporary places.

Meanwhile, French authorities have started transporting migrant children out of Calais to processing centres around France, amid tensions around the closure of the vast Jungle camp.

Three buses carried a group of unaccompanied boys, mainly teenagers, out of the camp on Wednesday morning.

Regional authorities say they have cleared out more than 19,000 migrants from Paris since June 2015

In Calais, authorities are finishing up the dismantling of a camp dubbed the Jungle which has come to epitomise Europe's migrant crisis

Authorities have said that nothing will be left of the notorious Jungle, home to around 6,000 migrants until a week ago, by Monday evening

Yesterday, workers in white overalls backed by a digger began clearing tents and mattresses from a street in the northeastern Stalingrad district, where around 2,000 migrants have been living under an overhead metro line

Earlier, riot police with shields sealed off the area during the operation - a prelude to a bigger effort in the coming days to clear the area, which is a long-standing magnet for the homeless in the capital

French authorities transferred more than 5,000 adult migrants out of Calais last week, but the fate of its 1,500 unaccompanied children remained unclear.

Migrants from the Middle East and Africa converged on the Jungle in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain.

President Francois Hollande said this week that the children would be transferred within days to 'dedicated centres' where British officials can explore whether they have the right to UK asylum.