A van driver has died in an accident at Calais after migrants dragged tree trunks onto the A16 motorway in a bid to slow traffic and break into vehicles bound for Britain.

At just before 4am on Tuesday, two trucks were forced to suddenly brake so as to avoid the tree trunks placed by migrants to block the road.

A third van, coming up from behind, was unable to stop in time and crashed into the other vehicles. According to Franceinfo the Renault Master — which was registered in Poland — caught fire, and its driver died in the accident.

Local media reports the death of the driver is the first at Calais caused by the actions of migrants determined to break into Britain. The identity of the deceased is not yet known at this stage, “given the state of the body”, said a spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais prefecture.

Nine Eritreans were arrested on suspicion of having placed tree trunks on the road, and are being held in police custody.

Dangerous roadblocks were being set up by migrants on an almost nightly basis before the Calais “Jungle” camp was dismantled in October last year. But the practice has started up again, and violence begun to escalate once more since May as migrants from Africa and Asia have started to return to the French port.

Breitbart London has often reported on the violent acts the Calais migrants have been willing to stoop to when trying to slow lorries so they can be boarded for Britain. In one case a driver was nearly killed when a wooden stake was hurled through his cab window, as his truck was “mobbed”.

Dozens of major public figures in France have called on President Emmanuel Macron to “end violence against migrants” at Calais, claiming that police “mistreatment” of the group of illegal, mainly Eritrean and Sudanese, illegals is “intolerable”.

Published Friday, the letter signed by 65 people including filmmakers, actors, NGO workers, and influential politicians including left wing firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, demands better treatment for migrants in Calais.

“For several years now, thousands of migrants have been travelling to Calais, hoping to reach Great Britain for a better life,” write the signatories. They state they are “ashamed” by authorities’ efforts to deter migrants, who the letter claims “fled their countries, their relatives, their families, travelled thousands of kilometres, escaped the worst: hunger, thirst, repression, slavery, and death”, to reach Britain.

The letter hails the work of “charities” and NGOs, who have been accused of luring migrants back to the French port town from which they are banned with food, water, and sleeping bags.

Lamenting that “migrants tell us they are being deprived of sleep, and beaten up and gassed by police”, the signatories tell the French president he has “the power to make these injustices stop within the hour”.

“Better still, you have the power to put in place the compassionate and dignified migration policies that have been requested by more than 200 organisations,” they plead with Macron, claiming it is impossible to stop migrants gathering in Calais.

“While there is a desire on the part of authorities to stop seeing migrants around the town, there is a much greater force on the part of these migrants who wish to build a better life for themselves and their families.

“No government will ever succeed, by any measure including death, hunger and repression, in preventing people from moving to where life is softer and more sweet,” the letter tells Macron.