One dead as 1,500 migrants try to storm eurotunnel terminal

At least 1,500 migrants desperate to reach England made new attempts to enter the Eurotunnel terminal overnight in the French port town of Calais, a police source told AFP Wednesday, adding that one person was found dead.

"Our team found a corpse this morning and the firefighters have confirmed the death of this person," added a spokesman for Eurotunnel.

The migrant, a man of Sudanese origin believed to be aged between 25 and 30, was hit by a truck that was leaving a cross-Channel ferry, the police source said.

The latest fatality brings the number of migrants who died near the Channel Tunnel terminal site to nine since June.

"Everything happened overnight, and at 6 am (0400 GMT), the police still have quite a lot of work to do," said the police source, adding that "between 500 and 1,000 migrants" were still around the tunnel site.

The overnight attempts at storming the Eurotunnel terminal came just hours after some 2,000 migrants sought to enter the site on Tuesday, in what was described as the "biggest incursion effort in the past month and a half".

Security at the Calais port was stepped up in mid-June, driving migrants who previously tried to stow away on trucks that take ferries across the Channel to try their luck smuggling through the undersea tunnel.