Desperate migrants try to cross Channel to Britain from Calais

Paris

UNDER cover of darkness, group after group of migrants made their way to the Eurotunnel compound in Calais, France, overnight on Monday, climbing over fences and other barriers in a desperate bid to board freight trains bound for Britain.

By 6:30am on Tuesday, the authorities had counted at least 2,100 efforts to enter the site, which is protected by Eurotunnel security and other law enforcement agencies. Nineteen hundred people were turned back; 200 were arrested and six were injured, the authorities said. It was not clear if any of the migrants actually got aboard the trains, which carry passenger cars and trucks under the English Channel to Britain.