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FRANCE - United Kiingdom

Police injured in clashes with protesters at Calais Jungle camp

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has condemned Saturday's clashes between migrants and their supporters and police at the "Jungle" camp in Calais. The violence broke out when police enforced a ban on a protest against the treatement of refugees.

Riot police confront demonstators at the Jungle
Riot police confront demonstators at the Jungle Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
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Five police officers and a journalists suffered light injuries when police used tear gas and water cannon when some 200 people confronted them on the outskirts of the crowded camp.

When police sought to push the protesters back inside the Jungle masked migrants and activists began throwing stones at police.

CRS riot police responded, firing 700 tear gas grenades and used a water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.

The confrontation, the most violent since February, lasted three hours.

The demonstration's organisers, a coalition of migrants' supporters, decided to defy the ban, imposed because of a risk to public order.

Some 150 people heading for the protest on a bus from Paris were stopped by police at a motorway tollgate.

Some 9,000 migrants are living in the makeshift camp, hoping to cross the Britain.

French President François Hollande said this week the Calais camp would be dismantled by the end of this year and asylum seekers would be dispersed around the country.

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