Afghan and Kurdish immigrants fight at refugee centre

Clashes have broken out between Afghan and Kurdish immigrants living at a Red Cross refugee centre near Calais.

French riot police moved in to break up fighting which left 29 people injured.

The Sangatte Red Cross Centre, about a mile from the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, houses more than 1,000 refugees. It was meant to hold only 650.

The centre has become a magnet for Afghans, Kurds and others hoping to slip through the tunnel to make an illegal entrance into Britain, where immigration laws are comparatively lax.

Eurotunnel, the British-French company that runs the tunnel, estimates it stopped 18,500 illegal immigrants reaching Britain in the first half of the year.