British anarchists living in Calais are ‘manipulating’ migrants into using more aggressive tactics, French police claimed yesterday.

The head of a major police union said he believed the storming of the Channel Tunnel on Sunday morning was partly organised by British Left-wingers.

The incident, which was one of the most dramatic so far in Calais, involved migrants tearing down fences and chanting ‘Open the borders’ as police reinforcements sped towards the tracks to prevent people reaching the tunnel.

Chaos: A French policeman pushes back migrants trying to jump on to trucks near Calais yesterday

Unrest: One migrant jumps over a wire fence as he attempts to reach the Channel Tunnel in Calais

Heading for a new home: Migrants who had managed to scale fences and evade French authorities were last night seen running alongside train tracks on the outskirts of Calais

Anti-terror police were also deployed. Other incidents have seen migrants cause chaos by lying down in the middle of roads to stop lorries passing.

Gilles Debove, from the union Unité SGP-Police FO, said police in Calais believe anarchists are training up and co-ordinating migrants. He said officers also suspect members of the activist group No Borders are among those spurring migrants on.

‘I’ve never seen an organised sit-in before,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘This is being encouraged not by human traffickers, who wish to remain discreet, but by extreme Left elements here to manipulate the migrants in the name of their ideal of imposing a country without borders or police. Among these activists are quite a few Britons.’

Mr Debove added that those involved had been allowed to act ‘with total impunity’.

Another migrant is seen scaling a fence in an attempt to reach the Channel Tunnel in Calais last night

Migrants run on the rail tracks at the Channel Tunnel site in Frethun in northern France yesterday night

One migrant is seen hiding behind a train as he attempts to gain access to the Channel Tunnel in Calais

He said: ‘It’s time for a return to the rule of law: they need to be identified and arrested. They are seeking opportunities to provoke clashes with the police and violence in the hope that the police will drop their guard (in protecting the site).

They want to depict us as savages. But if there was any police brutality, it would be all over the news.’

Another police source last night backed up Mr Debove’s remarks. In a sign of the growing violence in Calais, one policeman was slashed in the face with a stone earlier this week, leaving him with a gash on his forehead that required stitches.

EU CHIEF: LEADERS MUST IGNORE CALLS TO TURN AWAY MIGRANTS European leaders should ignore ‘populist’ demands to turn away migrants, the president of the European Commission has said. Jean-Claude Juncker called on countries to accept those arriving in Europe, adding: ‘There are moments in politics when you must not follow the populists, otherwise you become populist yourself. You must say the opposite of what [the populists] say. You must not become blinded by populist thought which is present in every country.’ He added that the situation at Calais ‘plunges me into the most complete distress’ and pledged to help Britain and France ease the problems. Advertisement

At Sunday’s protest, a British man wearing a scarf around his face could be seen washing tear gas from his eyes after police broke up a crowd of 100 migrants lying in the road. Earlier that day, the same man was seen filming the scene, claiming the group hoped to document alleged police brutality.

One British activist, Tim Woolrich, 48, from York, who sleeps in a caravan at the migrant camp in Calais, told The Sun last week: ‘We teach them how to pass the asylum exam. Of course we want them to cross the border.

‘They deserve to get to the UK.’ A statement on the No Borders website reads: ‘No Borders is an anti-capitalist movement. Borders are created by, and serve, capitalist elites.’

It adds: ‘Many, though not all, people in the No Borders network also think of ourselves as anarchists.

‘We believe a world without borders must also mean a world without states.’

The development comes just a day after the Mail reported that posters were displayed in the camp urging migrants to defy British border police if they were stopped in the UK. One sign on a caravan – decorated with the words ‘UK SVP [s’il vous plait]’ (‘UK please’) and ‘Destroy power, not people’ – read: ‘You do not have to answer any questions. You do not have to show them any documents.’

Force: Police officers in Calais believe British anarchists are training up and co-ordinating migrants

French police are pictured searching for migrants under a bridge next to a fence which migrants cross to gain access to the Channel Tunnel

A group of four migrants are seen making their way through an area where freight trains are stationed within yards of Eurostar trains departing for England

Another sign on the vehicle encouraged migrants to ‘prepare (their) story well’ and even suggested some should consider lying about their sexuality to get into Britain. It is not clear who erected the posters.

Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart, who last year accused No Borders of ‘destabilising’ the town by opening squats, said: ‘Today the situation is complicated even further by the fact that people, who are given the name of No Borders, have taken the power away from local charities who, with their advice and expertise, managed to temper and communicate with migrants.’