Blaze devastates Grande-Synthe migrant camp in France

A camp housing 1,500 migrants in northern France has been destroyed as a large fire has devastated the Grande-Synthe migrant camp, reducing it to “a heap of ashes”, according to the region’s prefect.

At least 10 people were injured when the fire tore through closely-packed huts at the camp, near the northern port city of Dunkirk.

“There is nothing left but a heap of ashes,” Michel Lalande, prefect of France’s Nord region, said at the site. “It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before.”

The blaze broke out after at least six migrants were wounded after scuffles and a knife fight earlier in the day between Afghan and Kurdish migrants. Riot police intervened and that led to further clashes between security forces and between 100 and 150 migrants.

A massive plume of smoke rose from the camp into the night sky and was visible from several kilometres away.

“Many of the cabins have burned down or are still on fire, more than half the camp has been destroyed,” a spokesman at the regional prefect’s office said, adding that 165 people had already been taken to makeshift shelters nearby as the fire continued to rage in the early hours of Tuesday.

The French north coast has been a magnet for migrants trying to reach Britain.

UK the Brexit secretary David Davis has said that immigration could increase even after Britain leaves the EU, raising the prospect that migrants could still continue to gather in northern France for years to come.

The population of the Grande-Synthe camp has grown since last October's destruction of the "Jungle" camp near Calais, about 40 km away.

Last month, officials said the Grande-Synthe camp would be dismantled, starting mid-March, because of unrest.