A crowd of around 200 migrants, attempting to get to Britain, made a mass attempt to gain access to the Channel Tunnel near Calais in northern France.

Several levels of security fencing were breached and appeared to take security personnel by surprise.

Only a handful of French soldiers initially stood between the migrants and the entrance to the tunnel, however they were swiftly backed up by riot police.

A stood ensued with the 200 migrants chanting slogans of, “Open the border” and “We are not animals”.

They were eventually sprayed with a chemical irritant.

Meanwhile, both the UK and France have asked other European Union nations to deal with the root causes of the issue.

Both British Home Secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart have reportedly described the situation as a “global migration crisis”.