Tunnel standby for New Year invasion

Police and Channel Tunnel chiefs are bracing themselves for a fresh invasion by illegal immigrants on New Year's Eve.

French riot police are on standby to combat any planned assault on the tunnel entrance. The move comes after more than 550 Iraqis, Kurds and Afghans from the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais launched an attack on Christmas night.

About 130 overwhelmed guards and got six miles inside the tunnel before they were rounded up.

Police reinforcements are expected to be drafted in over the weekend to patrol the 30-mile perimeter of the Eurotunnel terminal near Calais.

"We have had a large number of riot police on standby since the incident on Christmas night," said a Calais police spokesman. "We do not know what the immigrants are planning but we are ready for them."

Eurotunnel says train services will be running to near-normal timetables over New Year and highspeed Eurostar services - which did not operate over Christmas - will run. The company feels this makes it less likely that the tunnel will be stormed en masse. Meanwhile, the French Red Cross official in charge of the Sangatte camp today fiercely denied reports that he knew in advance of the Christmas bid to storm the tunnel.

As British politicians called for his resignation, Michel Meriaux, 50, said: "To suggest that I was aware that a mass escape bid was going to happen is malicious."

He insisted he had been misrepresented in a BBC interview and said his remarks in French had been mis-translated, a claim supported by the Red Cross. However, the BBC today stood by its story, and World At One took the unusual step of playing back yesterday's interview with Mr Meriaux in French.

Presenter Sheena MacDonald asked whether he had been aware that 500 refugees had left the Sangatte centre on the night of 25 December. He replied: "Yes, staff warned me by telephone of a movement of immigrants who had assembled in the centre and had decided to leave, as they often do.

"There were two waves, one at 21.00 when around 150 left. At around half past midnight a second wave of around 400 people left."

Ms MacDonald then said: "Eurotunnel said it was your responsibility to warn them, but you did not." He replied: "No I didn't warn Eurotunnel because I don't have to. My responsibility is to look after what goes on inside the centre. What happens outside doesn't concern me."

Since Sangatte opened in 1999, 28,000 asylum seekers have passed through it. Eurotunnel, which wants the camp dismantled, says it has spent £5 million on extra security to stop tunnel breaches.

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