French police forcibly clear huge Paris migrant camp

French police have cleared a huge Paris migrant camp where more than 2,000 people lived shoulder-to-shoulder in tents under a motorway overpass. 

Around 2,400 migrants, most of them young men from the Middle East and Africa, set fire to their camp under the A1 in Saint-Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris last night after police in heavy riot gear arrived.

The nearby metro station was closed for security reasons as officers attempted to control the crowds ahead of the arrival of dozens of buses to remove them.

Firemen were dispatched as thick black smoke billowed up from under the overpass near the Stade de France national stadium.

At a press briefing, Paris police prefect Didier Lallement declared the camp 'not acceptable.'

He said: 'This operation aims to ensure that people with the right to be here are given shelter and those who do not have that right do not remain on French territory.'