Fishing fleets to blockade ports across Europe

An escalation in industrial action which led to dozens of Britons being trapped in French ports has been raised further as protests from fishing fleets threatened to spread across Europe today.

Fishermen from ports including Boulogne, Calais and La Rochelle voted yesterday to extend their protest over high fuel costs and EU fishing quotas by an extra 48 hours.

It meant more days stuck at quayside for UK sailors and holidaymakers intimidated by aggressive strike action, but there was at least some good news for those stranded at Cherbourg.

Around 20 British yachts barricaded in the marina managed to break free after ropes and steel wire used to contain them were temporarily lifted by militant trawlermen last night.

Hugh Duncan, 58, a plumber from Lyme Regis, Dorset, said today: "We all got out basically in a mass exodus of about 20 of us, mainly English sailors. There wasn't any violence used against us, or any need to take up any defence.

"We just left the harbour and sat outside it before leaving to return to England at 5am this morning. To be honest it wasn't a struggle to be stuck in Cherbourg because it's so nice.

"It was kind of annoying because we were just trying to do a wine run and it turned into this diabolical situation because of the French fishermen."

But Paul Haysom, 60, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, told reporters: "They've given in - we've defeated them. We've been sitting around here for seven days and been treated disgracefully. Flares have been fired and people intimidated."

While some Britons escaped from Cherbourg, dozens more remained trapped as blockades continued at ports along the French Channel coast.

Efforts to leave port prompted French strikers in some protest hotspots to blockade harbours, first with steel cables drawn across entrances, then with trawlers hemming in leisure yachts and boats.

The action hit French sailors as well as tourists, but attempts by UK crews to get home triggered confrontation in some places.

In Saint Vaast, a stand-off between UK yachtsmen and French trawlermen ended in defeat for British efforts to break out of port and head home.

Skipper Mark Leach told the BBC how his vessel was rammed as he attempted to slip out of the harbour - and some French protestors threw lighted flares which narrowly missed his boat.

"We tried to get out of the harbour this morning and there was a barricade across the harbour entrance, and they stopped us getting out, and that led to quite a confrontation and our boat got rammed and damaged," he told BBC radio.

"We had flares thrown at us, water poured at us, a right ding-dong really, and there's about 30 boats here, all trying to get out and none of us can get out, so we're all stuck here."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 310 million euro (£247 million) aid package to fishermen after several ports were blockaded in November.

But the fishermen recently said that the aid is not enough to cope with the sharp increase in the price of diesel.

And hopes of a swift end faded this afternoon, as Spanish, Italian and Greek fishermen signalled readiness to join the action as disquiet spread across Europe.