Calais residents scuffle with pro-migrant rally … one draws his rifle (VIDEO)
A video has emerged of the situation in Calais, France, approaching boiling point when one of the locals took out a rifle amid scuffles with a pro-migrant rally.
The footage, filmed Saturday, features a French family and their neighbors trying to prevent the not-so-peaceful demonstration from marching through the street that they live on.
The conflict escalated quickly as two men started insulting the protesters who “didn’t like” that, photojournalist Frederik Sadones told RT. The protesters returned the insults and started throwing things at the men, bicycle tires among them.
The crowd that significantly outnumbered the residents also forced them to move closer to their house. One of the residents apparently feeling under pressure resorted to a desperate measure – he went back home and returned holding a hunting rifle, all this while the other man and himself were still being showered with various objects.
“The man went back inside and he took his hunting rifle back out and he pointed it at refugees … the people quickly dissipated, police showed up as well, but fortunately nobody got hurt and no shots were fired,” Sadones said.
The other man could be seeing trying to attack migrants with a stick before police interfered.
Port town mayor Natacha Bouchart has recently addressed the government calling for the help of the army to deal with the refugee influx.
“I repeat the demand to deploy the army. They are needed to strengthen the security forces on the ground so they can fulfill their mission and apiece the population who are fed up with the situation,” she said.
The Saturday incident took place as around 2,000 rallied in Calais to support migrants stuck in the camps there who had been hoping to reach the UK.
During the rally around 150 protesters broke into the port, with 50 of them boarding a UK-bound ferry. The port operations were temporarily put on hold. Some 35 intruders were arrested.
The refugee makeshift camp known as the “Jungle” set up in Calais last year houses nearly 6,000 refugees displaced from Africa and the Middle East seeking to get access to the Eurotunnel and, therefore, Britain.
