CATERS Lucy Phillips and her family were set upon when crossing on the ferry back from Calais

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Lucy Phillips was coming back from a world championship equestrian event with her parents when their route onto a Calais-docked ferry was blocked by a fallen tree. As many as 10 migrants jumped out from bushes on the roadside on August 22 before attacking the family’s car using bats and tree branches.

It was so scary and it seems that over the past couple of months the violence has got worse Lucy Phillips

The migrants, dressed in all-black, started to hit the horse-box and smashed the passenger window. Lucy, 26, moved to the back of the truck to try to calm her horse down when she heard the attackers attempting to make their way into the box through the side door. She said: "It was so scary and it seems that over the past couple of months the violence has got worse.

TWITTER Lucy Phillips is one of the top ranked equestrian vaulters in the world

"It’s horrendous and beyond belief. It’s not just the big trucks they target, they don’t seem to care who they attack anymore. "I don’t want to scare people. But anyone going out there needs to be so careful on the way back. We’ve vowed never to travel back at night again." Lucy explained how her parents were left covered in blood. Her mother Liz suffered cuts to her face while her father sustained cuts to his arm.

Miss Phillips was travelling back to Britain after representing the UK in equestrian vaulting, described as horseback gymnastics, when she and her family were attacked at around 1.30am. She added: "It was really scary and completely dark. We had been told to beep your horn to get the police’s attention and the migrants were telling us keep quiet."

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