Calais crisis: Man arrested after walking almost the entire 31-mile length of the Channel Tunnel

He is understood to have been apprehended less than half a mile from the British exit of the tunnel

Eurotunnel warned that attempting to enter the tunnel is both illegal and dangerous (PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images)

A man who is believed to have walked almost the entire length of the Channel Tunnel from Calais is being held by British police.

The man, understood to be a Sudanese migrant, was found near the British exit of the tunnel at Folkestone in Kent on Tuesday evening.

The total length of the tunnel is 31 miles, and he was apprehended less than half a mile from the Folkestone exit.

Kent Police said 40-year-old Abdul Rahman Haroun has been charged with causing an obstruction to an engine or a carriage using the railway, under the Malicious Damage Act 1861.

The incident is also being investigated by Home Office immigration enforcement officers. The man was due to appear at Medway magistrates court on Thursday.

He was reportedly found in one of the two railway tunnels, and not the central service tunnel.

His incursion into the tunnel halted the service, but it resumed in the late afternoon.

A spokesman from Eurotunnel said incursions into the tunnel were "extremely rare", and added it is "both illegal and highly dangerous."

He said that Eurotunnel hoped that "the full force of the law will be used" to show that attempting to enter the UK by going through the tunnel is both dangerous and impractical.

The site around the Eurotunnel is subject to hundreds of attempted incursions, usually at night, by people trying to reach the UK.

At least 12 people have died this year while trying to make it into the UK this year, according to Calais Migrant Solidarity.

A Cobra emergency committee meeting on the crisis was held on Monday, and a number of measures, including new fencing and additional guards, have been introduced in an effort to quell the problem.