Several of us saw the migrants chatting peacefully in the gardens in front of the town hall. 10 seconds later a police van arrived. The migrants ran and were pursued by a couple of cops on foot and another police van. The police caught up with them and viciously beat at least one of them to the ground with a baton. He was hospitalised and the other was cuffed and taken away. When asked the police told us that they'd been arrested "for running away from them". The police later claimed that they had been called to the area because the migrants had been trying to get into a caravan (which was parked in a very busy and visible place in front of the town hall).

This was a surreal and incredibly vicious incident; locals and tourists got a glimpse of the routine hassle that migrants are subjected to here, before continuing about their business in sunny Calais.