/ 11 October 2005

‘Unstable’ SA man strolls through channel tunnel

A 39 year-old South African man was detained in France after walking through the channel tunnel from Britain, police said on Tuesday.

The unnamed man, who had only a pair of flip-flop sandals on his feet, was spotted by security cameras at the French end of the 50km tunnel early on Sunday morning.

French police said the man appeared to be mentally unstable. He was not a migrant or a refugee, they said. He has since been returned to Britain.

A spokesperson for tunnel operator Eurotunnel said the man had taken advantage of a ”brief malfunction of the systems of surveillance”. ‒ Sapa-AFP