
Demolition workers supported by riot police today began smashing up an illegal camp full of UK-bound migrants in Paris.

There were scuffles 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.

Demolition workers supported by riot police today began smashing up an illegal camp full of UK-bound migrants in Paris

There were scuffles as mainly Afghans and Eritreans tried to save their possessions during the raid, which started soon after 8am

One migrant was unable to hide his anger and was forced back by police as the makeshift camp in Paris was destroyed

An Afghan migrant begins shouting at riot police and clean up workers after the camp set up in Paris where he was living is destroyed

One of the male migrants held his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes after being pepper sprayed by police in Paris today

He then had to be helped by a friend as he was unable to see after being sprayed as police moved in to move the migrant camp

A man holds a poster stating 'No to migrants arrests' as French police asked migrants to remove their makeshift camp close to the Eurostar terminal in Paris

While some 5,000 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 3,000 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.

Shortly before today’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.’

Riot police with shields and batons stood guard and kept back migrant, who could only watch on as their camp was destroyed

After hearing the camp was to be destroyed, it provoked anger with many of the migrants lashing out at police and shouting

Riot police used their shields to keep back the migrants who saw their makeshift camp in Paris destroyed early this morning

Officers look on as the migrants begin to walk away from the camp, carrying their backpacks full of their possessions

Plastics bags and the remnants of tents are piled up in the street as riot police oversee the destruction of a migrant camp in Paris

A police operation is under way in a Paris migrant camp that has resurged in recent weeks in a new challenge to French government efforts to tackle the migrant crisis

Up to 3,000 migrants 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

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

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.

The £6million 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.

After the migrants were cleared out, a clean up operation began to remove their tents and other belongings from the ground

The clean up operation comes as the first ever official centre for refugees in Paris is due to be opened by the city’s Socialist council later this week

A digger truck is brought in to scoop up the last of the belongings left behind after the migrant camp was destroyed

The camps which were bulldozed and cleaned up were located between the Stalingrad and Jaures metro stations in northern Paris

One of the workers wears a face mask as another driving a digger scoops up rubbish and tents that were left behind

A riot police officer stands guard to keep migrants away from the workers cleaning up the makeshift camp in the French capital

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.

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.

One migrant folds up his tent and packs up his belongings in his backpack after he was asked to leave the area

After folding his tent he also packed up his sleeping bag and took the last of his belongings before moving on

One evicted migrant sits with his head in his hands after being removed from the camp at Quai de Jemmapes in Paris

Two Afghan migrants remove their mattress after French police asked them to remove their makeshift camp

Shortly before today’s clearance French president Francois Hollande said: ‘We won’t tolerate the camps any longer'

Migrants at another camp in the French capital sit in the sun next to their tents as French authorities begin removing the camps