(BBC)
Travellers heading to France are facing delays of several hours amid continuing gridlock on roads near Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone.
More than 17,000 passengers had left Dover on ferries by lunchtime on one of the busiest weekends of the year.
P&O Ferries warned customers to allow three to four hours to clear local roads and security checks on Saturday.
Passengers using Eurotunnel also faced lengthy delays on the journey to the Folkestone terminal.
This weekend is one of the busiest for UK overseas travel as most schools in England and Wales have broken up for the summer.
Families travelling to the Eurotunnel terminal told the BBC they faced delays of more than six hours amid heavy congestion around Folkestone.
Read also: Tour de France: Jonas Vingegaard set for victory as Wout van Aert wins stage 20
Passengers using Eurotunnel were asked to arrive two hours early by the operator.
John Keefe, director of public affairs for Eurotunnel, said traffic disruption had been caused by an accident on the M20 on Friday, and stretches of the road being used solely for freight traffic, with holidaymakers diverted on to A-roads.
Saturday’s delays follow long waits on Friday when a major incident was declared after routes around the Kent terminals were in gridlock and traffic queues four miles long also formed on the eastbound M2.
A war of words broke out between UK and French officials over the cause of the disruption.
In a visit to Kent on Saturday afternoon, Tory leadership candidate and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss claimed delays at Dover ferry port were down to a lack of French border staff.
She said: “I’m very clear that we need to see action from them to resolve the terrible situation that people are facing.”
But Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont rejected this and said additional checks post-Brexit and a lack of capacity at the port were behind the problem.
He also told BBC News the Port of Dover was “too small” and there were too few kiosks due to lack of space.
Some 3,000 lorries are also waiting to cross the Channel. They are currently parked on the M20 outside Dover, while holiday traffic is prioritised.
Natalie Chapman, from haulier group Logistics UK, said some lorry drivers had waited to cross the Channel for “well over 18 hours” in queues with no toilet facilities.