Calais blocked by striking sailors for third straight day

triking French ferry workers blocked the port of Calais for a third consecutive day Wednesday, causing havoc with cross-Channel sailings and huge tailbacks on roads in the region.

"The port is still blocked," a port official told AFP Wednesday morning, a day after around 30 sailors burned tyres on tracks at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, bringing Eurostar rail services to a halt.

Eurostar trains were running as normal Wednesday after being cancelled for several hours Tuesday, the company announced.

The workers from French company MyFerryLink are protesting plans to sell off some of their ferries to rival Danish firm DFDS, a move expected to result in hundreds of job losses.

The action Tuesday was a repeat of last week, when the strikers also blocked the port and barred access to the Channel Tunnel with burning tyres.

Some of the thousands of migrants camped out around the port in Calais have been trying to use the cover provided by the unrest to stow away on trucks headed across the water to Britain.

The ferry route from Dover in England to Calais is one of the busiest in Europe, with British holidaymakers using it to get to the Continent by car.