Euro 2016 sparks new migrant threat: Calais Jungle to exploit weakened security during cup

CALAIS migrants could exploit overstretched security forces during this summer's Euro 2016 football tournament to sneak into Britain en masse, French police have warned.

A French policeman watches over migrantsGETTY

French police have warned migrants could exploit Euro 2016 to sneak into Britain

Officers in the lawless port town said the migrant situation on France's northern coast is "still a hell of a mess" and reported a huge spike in efforts to reach the UK in recent weeks. 

Rioting migrants are now risking truckers' lives by operating in organised criminal gangs, chopping down trees and laying the trunks across motorways to force lorries to screech to a halt, sources said.

Smuggling crime lords then use crowbars and iron rods to smash through padlocks and stow migrants away, often ripping up packaging and causing tens of thousands of pounds of damage to UK-bound stock. 

Police say the violence has only got worse in recent weeks despite French authorities trying to quell the chaos by dismantling large parts of the crime-ridden Jungle camp. 

The football stadium in LilleGETTY

Officers are likely to be drafted away from the lawless town to protect football crowds

The Jungle campGETTY

The migrant situation in Calais is still chaotic despite the dismantlement of the Jungle camp

And now they fear migrants will exploit the need for heightened security at the Euro 2016 football tournament to make a mass breakout for Britain. 

Thousands of extra officers will have to be drafted in to protect crowds at group stage matches in the northern French cities of Lille and Lens amid a huge security threat from Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis. 

Sources said it is likely a number of both local and CRS riot squad officers will be redeployed from Calais, where law and order forces are still hugely overstretched and badly understaffed.

French police in the Jungle campGETTY

French police have warned their resources are already spread too thinly

The situation is still a hell of a mess

Police union spokesman Gilles Debove

Gilles Debove, of the Police-Force Ouvriere union, said: "Everyone pretends everything is fine in Calais, but it's just not true. I'm choosing my words here, but the situation is still a hell of a mess." 

Bruno Noel, from fellow police union Alliance, added: "I fear a rise in tensions and more and more problems, because thousands of migrants are arriving in Italy, even if some are going back to Turkey. My colleagues have had enough because there is no solution." 

Their stark warnings come as police warned migrants are going to increasingly desperate lengths in their attempts to break into Britain. 

On Tuesday night two squads of overstretched CRS riot police battled with gangs of migrants who chopped down trees and placed the branches and trunks in the road to force lorries to stop. 

Many truckers have warned it is only a matter of time before somebody is killed amid deepening violence in the chaotic port town. 

A French police spokesman said: "Migrants once again attempted to slow down the traffic by placing branches on the road to obstruct lorries heading to the port of Calais.

"Migrants are cutting down and putting branches, and even tree trunks, on the road and they are operating simultaneously in several places."

Last week reported how violence in Calais is on the rise again, with roaming packs of migrants setting fire to piles of wood in the road and attacking truckers with stones and iron bars as they attempt to smuggle themselves into Britain. 

Despite the dismantling of the Jungle up to 10,000 migrants are still living in and around the lawless port town, with many refusing to move into state sanctioned accommodation because they fear officials were curtail their illegal bids to cross the Channel.