One person shot, 20 injured in brawl at 'Jungle' refugee camp

Twenty people living in the "Jungle" refugee camp in the northern French port of Calais were injured in a brawl between around 200 Afghans and Sudanese on Thursday, local officials said.

Police said one person had been shot, and officials confirmed that several people received knife and baton injuries.

"Around 20 migrants, three volunteers and a police officer were injured in a brawl between Afghans and Sudanese. The reason for the fight has not yet been determined," the regional authority said in a statement.

The fight broke out as food was being distributed at the Jules-Ferry aid centre, the authority said.

An AFP reporter at the scene said several makeshift shelters were being burned down and that 15 fire trucks had been called to the site.

Around 20 police cars also arrived to break up the fight, and tear gas was deployed, the AFP reporter added.

The situation had calmed down by early evening.

Fights have previously broken out in the tense and desperate atmosphere of the camp, which is roughly divided between Afghan, Sudanese, Kurdish and Syrian communities.

A fight between Afghans and Sudanese in March left 19 people injured.

Although the government says the number is vastly inflated, French and British charities say nearly 5,000 people remain in the Jungle despite efforts to clear the camp and demolish shelters earlier this year.

Thousands of migrants and refugees have camped out there, hoping to smuggle themselves aboard lorries that are crossing the Channel to Britain.

More than 30 people have perished since last June in and around the vast and squalid camp, AFP has reported.

The latest was a 24-year-old Pakistani man hit by a car on the ring road around Calais on 9 May.

Others have been struck by a train, drowned or electrocuted, some in horrific circumstances, dragged along tracks after a desperate, failed bid to stow away on cross-Channel transport.