Cross-Channel Eurostar train services resumed on Wednesday after they were suspended the day before when hundreds of protesting French ferry workers set fire to tyres on the tracks.

Eurostar's website said the first train of the day from Paris to London left as scheduled at 7.10 am (0510 GMT). The first train of the day from London to Paris also departed on time.

On Tuesday, some 200 MyFerryLink workers forced their way onto the tracks, forcing the suspension of the Eurotunnel car and lorry-carrying train services and Eurostar passenger trains.

Some of the thousands of illegal immigrants camped in Calais and desperately trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain took advantage of the chaos to try to climb into the back of lorries backed up on roads approaching the port.