Jersey tensions rise as France sends a vessel to the island to counter Royal Navy ships.
Angry French fishermen approached Jersey "like an invasion" and lit flares at the port of St Helier as two Royal Navy gunboats - HMS Severn and HMS Tamar - were positioned nearby.
British navy and French police vessels are patrolling waters around Jersey amid fears of a possible blockade by about 60 French fishing boats which gathered off the island "like an invasion".
A flotilla of French boats headed towards the Channel island's port of St Helier at about 5 am, with angry fishermen lighting flares and waving banners calling for fishing access to the waters.
A freight ship was initially "trapped" and unable to leave the harbour, but was later allowed to pass as the row over post-Brexit fishing rights between the UK and France escalated on Thursday.
The Royal Navy's HMS Severn and HMS Tamar, armed with machine guns and cannon, were positioned miles away after being sent to the island's main port to “monitor the situation” following mounting threats from Normandy trawlermen.
France sent two police vessels to the area, including a former navy boat armed with cannon, as the situation in St Helier unfolded and a French fishing industry official warned "we're ready for war".
David Sellam, head of the joint Normandy-Brittany sea authority, was quoted by French media as saying that Jersey had been taken over by an "extremist fringe", who wanted to profit from Brexit.