Tony Christie said his tour bus was ambushed by a group of men after it stopped for fuel near a migrant camp in France.

The Amarillo singer and his wife Sue were asleep in the vehicle on Sunday evening when they were awoken by a "shaking" driver and tour manager.

"I couldn't believe it," Christie, 73, told the Daily Mail.

"They could have got into the coach, what the hell would they have done?"

The couple were returning from a European tour with Christie's band, heading home through France when it happened.


Christie said five hooded migrants surrounded their driver, while another broke into one of the trailers.

"It's the second time it's happened to the coach driver," Christie said.

"The first time he was stabbed by a spike. These poor drivers take a hell of a risk.

Image: The singer with pop star Lulu in 1972

"I feel really sorry for these people, I know they're desperate but we shouldn't be scared to travel."

The petrol station where the bus stopped to refuel was on the A16 motorway outside Dunkirk, near the Grande-Synthe migrant camp and around 27 miles east of Calais.

The so-called "jungle" camp in Calais was disbanded in October, and many displaced migrants have made the journey along the coast to the Grande-Sythe.

Christie, who enjoyed re-found fame in 2005 when his 1971 single (Is This The Way To) Amarillo was re-released, said the attackers only dispersed when the driver warned them about security cameras.

"But then our tour manager found a man hiding with the stage equipment in the trailer," Christie said.

Christie said the attacker threatened to kill the driver with a crowbar before fleeing the scene.

The singer said he did not inform local police because "nothing would happen".

He said the coach driver did report it to staff on their ferry trip across the canal.

"It was a very sour end to the tour," Christie said.

"I think I will fly from now on, I don't think I'll go on the road again."