35 arrested as ferry boarded

FRENCH police have arrested 35 people after protesters and migrants broke into the Calais ferry terminal and boarded a ship heading to the UK.

Regional president Xavier Bertrand said that the army needed to be brought in to restore security around transport terminals at the town.

Mr Bertrand said that improvements in the processing of asylum applications meant that the population of the Jungle, the name for the area where migrants were camped, had dropped from 6,000 to 4,000.

However, Médecins Sans Frontières‎ put the number even lower at 2,500, including about 250 children, but said the number was rising.

The breach happened when a group of hundreds of migrants and protesters broke through fencing at the ferry port.

Around 50 of them managed to board the a ship before they were removed.

The incident followed a pro-migrant protest by the group No Borders, which believes in the eradication of national frontiers.

German, Dutch and British marchers joined French protesters around 2,000 people taking part.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart described the protest as a diversion that allowed hard-left groups to vandalise a statue of Charles de Gaulle in the town and break into the port.

P&O services returned to normal on Sunday following the disruption.