ROCK ATTACK
Brit lorry driver battered with ROCKS by gang of 15 laughing migrants in terrifying bid to storm truck & cross Channel
A GANG of 15 laughing migrants pelted a British lorry driver with rocks and bricks in a terrifying attempt to storm inside and cross the Channel.
Andy Couper, 57, suffered cuts and bruises when they smashed his window and "all tried to jump into the cab" as he queued at the border in Calais, France.
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Meanwhile video footage of separate attack on Brit trucker Greg West this week showed a gang lobbing oranges and loo roll at his cab and banging on the doors.
Hauliers warned that drivers are increasingly being threatened and physically attacked by migrants.
It's believed that stowaways are making more brazen attempts to board lorries because it has become harder to cross the Channel by boat.
Andy how he was ambushed as he waited in traffic with a lorry load of vegetables.
He said: “I could sense someone trying to get into the lorry. I looked down and within seconds there were 15 of them laughing at me.
“The next minute I hear someone hit the truck and the second after that, the whole passenger window caves in.
“They all try to jump into the cab. I drive off slowly with my hand on the horn to attract attention to anyone in the area. But there are no police.
“Another brick came through and I managed to drive off slowly and they started to attack the truck behind me.”
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When Andy arrived at the port, a heart monitor check showed no one had managed to sneak on board.
But another lorry was opened, revealing “something like a Butlins’ Holiday Camp, there were loads of migrants in there,” Andy said.
He added: “They are just running riot around Calais. I think someone one day will get killed.
“There hasn’t been a problem for about three years at the port but now it is just as bad as it ever was.”
Andy's ordeal this week is far from a one-off, the Road Haulage Association warned.
'PERFECT STORM'
It said people smugglers had switched to threatening drivers with violence in an effort to bully them into taking migrants across the Channel.
Traffickers are exploiting fears it will be harder to reach the UK after the end of the Brexit transition period and free movement on December 31.
And sea crossings are less attractive because of bad weather and new measures by France to stop smuggler boats leaving the beaches.
The RHA's Paul Mummery said it all adds up to a “perfect storm” in the busy weeks before Christmas.
He told the Telegraph: “We are seeing an upsurge in problems as there is more desperation to get here as soon as possible.
“Their preferred route is to sneak into the back of the lorry. They put obstacles in the road to slow the trucks down so they can jump in the back.
“If that doesn’t work, they assault the driver and cause criminal damage to the trucks. It’s all part of the intimidation process to bully the drivers into letting them into the back.”
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Around 8,500 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, more than seven times the total in 2019.
In October, four migrants died including children aged five and eight when a packed boat capsized a few miles from the French coast.
Last month the Home Office signed a deal with France to stem boat crossings with high-tech patrols and a doubling of gendarmes on the beaches.
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Dozens of migrants who made it across the Channel are to be deported to France, Germany and Spain.
But today it emerged criminal charges against 69 Albanians smuggled in a trawler had been dropped - as they were caught before reaching the UK.
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Bungled French efforts to stop migrants crossing the channel like ‘trying to empty sea with a spoon’, Calais MP warns
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