FERRY passengers and freight carriers were caught up in travel chaos today as French fishermen blockaded the port of Calais in protest at rising fuel charges.

The blockade affected P&O, SeaFrance and Hoverspeed services sailing in and out of Calais.

The blockade, involving around 12 fishing vessels only finished at around 1.30pm this afternoon.

At one point two P&O ships were stuck inside Calais harbour, one, the P&O freight carrier, Pride of Burgandy, was already loaded with freight, while the Pride of Aquitaine was ready to load.

Early morning crossings from Dover were forced to turn back to the port. By midday, many of the passengers on board were heading for the Channel Tunnel after their tickets were transferred.

P&O spokesman Brian Rees, said that the passengers arriving at Dover for morning sailings were given the option of joining the ship but were warned that there was a chance they would have to turn back to Dover.

Mr Rees said: “We knew that a meeting had taken place in Boulogne discussing strikes, but when it happened it was a bit of a wildcat action.”

Kent Police added that they were monitoring traffic into the port of Dover along the M20 and A20, and were alerted to the possibility of deploying operation stack to divert traffic away from the M20.