British police have been called in for help with an international hunt for the rapist who attacked a London journalism student in a makeshift camp for migrants in Calais this week.

Investigators, who believe the attacker could be a member of a people trafficking gang, say he may have crossed the Channel to Britain after the assault.

Two photo-fit portraits of the suspect - a man of Middle Eastern appearance in his 20s - have been sent to police in Britain and in other European countries by the French authorities.

They say the 31-year-old woman - whose identity cannot be disclosed - was the victim of a violent assault whilst taking photographs of migrants squatting in a camp known as The Jungle whilst waiting for the opportunity to reach Britain.

”She was raped and brutally attacked. She has very significant wounds around her mouth and scratch marks on her face,” said Philippe Muller, the deputy state prosecutor in nearby Boulogne-sur-Mer.

He said the victim had stayed in France in a bid to identify her attacker from amongst the dozens of migrants detained by French police and immigration authorities since the attack.”She has shown a lot of courage to help with the investigation but she has suffered a lot and the only thing she now wants is to return home,” Mr Muller said.

The Canadian woman, originally from Vancouver, had arrived in Calais on Sunday to take photographs of migrants in the Jungle as part of her journalism course in London.

Mr Muller said local police had warned her against going in to the notoriously dangerous camp alone at night but the student, who had already visited The Jungle on three occasions, ignored their advice.

She entered the isolated woods where between 300 and 400 migrants have made tents out of plastic sheets, and struck up a conversation with a group of them.”A man came out of the group, said he had something to show her and led her to a cabin a few dozen metres away,” said Mr Muller. “That is where she was raped.”

He said the assault lasted about half-an-hour and ended when another migrant approached the cabin, enabling the woman to escape.

Detectives believe the attacker could be a member of the gangs which charge hundreds and sometimes thousands of euros to smuggle migrants across the Channel because he spoke good French. Few of the migrants in The Jungle bother to learn the language.

Police in France were able to put together one photo-fit of the suspect using the victim’s evidence. And a second based upon the statements of another migrant who saw them together.

However, Mr Muller said: “It is to be feared that he has already left the area either for another country - such as England - or for another port in France. ”The logical route for him to have taken out of France is to England.”

The two photo-fit portraits have also been sent to authorities in Belgium, Holland and Italy.”If he had people smuggling activities then he could be as far away as Italy by now,” said Mr Muller.

Today a French police operation to round up and question the migrants was under way in the woods which house the Jungle.

Vanloads of riot police led groups of between 15 and 20 asylum seekers out of the trees before driving them to Calais police station for questioning.

Mr Muller said the operation had been planned as a crackdown on illegal immigration. But the migrants taken in for questioning were all asked whether they had information about the rape, he said.

Mohib, 17, who said he was from Afghanistan said he had spent 50 days in the camp and tried to jump on a lorry to Britain “every day”.”I get caught by the police all the time but I don’t know anything about anyone being attacked in the camp.”

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