VOLUNTEERS due to travel to France tomorrow to deliver aid to the refugee camp in Calais have remained defiant in the wake of last night’s terror attacks in Paris and a subsequent fire which tore through the camp.

Members of the Swindon-Calais Solidarity aid group will still travel across the channel tomorrow (Sunday) to deliver aid to the camp, founder Anna Edwards has revealed, despite being up most of the night sick with worry herself.

She told The Adver on Saturday morning: “I have been up most of the night. The shock was two-fold for me because I have a lot of friends who live in Paris who we visit quite regularly. I spent the whole night waiting up to hear from them one by one that they were okay. I felt absolutely helpless sat here waiting to hear that they were okay.

“Then to hear that there was a fire in the camp - the pictures were taken by a friend of mine so I know the fire is confirmed.”

She added there was a widespread fear that the fire had been started as an act of revenge for the gun and bomb attacks which tore through Paris after 9pm on Friday night, leaving at least 127 people dead, but she knew this not to be the case having spoken with a close friend at the camp.

She said: “It has transpired that the fire was started by a candle that was knocked over. 40 of the tents were burned to the ground. The refugees are desperate to have the tents and blankets replaced.

“It is just absolutely unbelievable the timing - it was an unhappy coincidence. But people are surmising that it was some sort of backlash, because everyone seems to think that Isis is in the camp and the attacks [in Paris] have stemmed from the camps. But it is nothing so exciting as that - just a candle knocked over.”

The French authorities have yet to formally confirm the cause of the fire.

Anna said she feared that these latest attacks in Paris – the worst since the Second World War – could have repercussions on the refugees at the camp, but she and her team remained determined to help.

She said: “As a team we are very concerned about how it is going to affect the camp directly. We have worked incredibly hard to educate people and get them on board with us and we have had so much support from people in Swindon, but now we have another obstacle.

“But the show must go on – if anything they need us in the camp now more than ever, so we will be going there as planned tomorrow.

“We are thankful that the borders haven’t been closed and we are able to get across which is very fortunate because each trip costs a lot of money. We were very concerned last night that the trip wouldn’t go ahead.

“I am trying to allay peoples’ fears, and I am very confident that we are going to be quite safe – the one difference is that there are much tighter border controls. We are likely to be stopped and checked a lot more.”