French police are questioning about 100 men after a Canadian student was raped near Calais.

The woman was attacked after going to photograph a camp used by illegal immigrants waiting to cross the Channel to Britain, the AFP news agency said.

"There she was the victim of a rape perpetrated by an individual who is now being Czech swims across Gibraltar Strait both ways ...
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The UK consulate in Lille said she was a student in London.

Welfare centre

The camp, known as "The Jungle," lies in woodland near the Calais ferry terminal, is home to hundreds of migrants hoping to cross the English Channel.

It is made up of shelters constructed from plastic sheets and camp-fires built by the migrants, AFP said.

Monique Delannoy, from the Belle Etoile charity which provides meals to the migrants, told the news agency that no aid workers would have been on site after 1800 local time.

Ms Delannoy said her group had counted 450 migrants - Afghans, Kurds, Iranians and Africans - in and around the forest in mid-August, all but 30 of them men.

An official from Canada's embassy in Paris confirmed the woman was Canadian.

In 2002, Sangatte refugee camp near Calais was closed in a bid to stem the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel into the UK.

Charities and officials want to create a welfare centre for the migrants who continue to sleep rough in the port town.

(BBC)

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