 Fishing boats block ferry in at Calais |
The blockade of French ferry ports by fishermen angry at fuel price rises has ended, but more protests are likely. Calais, Dunkirk and Le Havre were blocked for four hours on Friday by cordons of fishing vessels. Cherbourg is set to face action on Saturday.
The fishermen say the price of diesel has gone up by 34% since the start of the year and they want subsidies from the French Government.
P&O announced just before 1300BST that its Dover-Calais service was resuming.
'Rammed'
A number of ferry passengers switched to Eurotunnel to reach Calais. They included a convoy of 100 London cabs whose drivers were taking terminally-ill children on a day trip to Disneyland in Paris.
Dover-Calais services of P&O, SeaFrance and Hoverspeed were all affected. Two P&O ferries that had set out for Calais had to return to Dover after the fishermen strung their boats across the entrance to the French port's harbour.
One Briton caught up in the chaos was Richard Gapper, 61, from Chatham, Kent, who was on a yacht stuck in Calais.
Mr Gapper, who is retired, said: "The port authorities advised us not to attempt to leave as we would be rammed by fishing boats."
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