Channel Tunnel shuttles smashed their own three-day record by carrying more than 1,000 cats and dogs back to the UK on Sunday.

The previous best was on January 3, when Eurotunnel's Le Shuttle service carried 926 pets.

Another record was broken when the shuttles carried 200,000 passenger vehicles - or around one million passengers - over Christmas and the New Year.

Eurotunnel said a period of intense traffic around the school holidays broke all previous records for Le Shuttle.

Between December 14 and January 6, some 200,000 cars, motorcycles, vehicles with trailers, caravans, camper vans and coaches using the 35-minute service between the Cheriton and Coquelles terminals.

Eurotunnel said this was equivalent to around one million passengers, and the highest figure for a similar period since 2001.