Drivers desperately waiting for permission to cross the Channel will be tested at the Port of Dover - despite official advice to truckers to head elsewhere.

Tensions have been rising on the approaches to the harbour after stranded drivers were told they would have to leave Dover to rejoin huge queues of lorries at Manston Airport and in the Operation Brock system on the M20.

With the streets of the town gridlocked with vehicles ranging from light vans to the largest HGVS, it appears the authorities have decided it is better to carry out some testing at the port itself in a bid to begin to clear the roads leading to the Eastern Docks.

Drivers are being tested in their vehicles.

Earlier tensions appeared to be boiling over in the town as lorry drivers have clashed with police and blockaded the Port of Dover in anger at the plans for testing.

One man was arrested and another was photographed being dragged from the road after lying down in front of a lorry which was trying to leave.

Many truckers have been stranded at the port town since Sunday when the border was closed due to fears over the "out of control" new coronavirus strain.

Official guidance on the Government website tells HGV drivers they "should not travel to Kent until further notice" but those who are heading to Dover "must go to Manston".

The giant makeshift 4,000-capacity lorry park at the airfield in Thanet reached capacity earlier today.

There have been reports of stand-offs at Manston as drivers both try and get on and off the site, as well as traffic chaos throughout coastal Kent in the wake of the French travel ban.

Drivers have also been turning up at walk-in test centres in the county in the hope they can be seen and receive a negative result allowing them to travel.

Read more: All the latest news from Dover