Paris’s Gaité Lyrique theatre was long famed for staging operettas by Offenbach and seen as a jewel in the French capital’s cultural crown.

But on Wednesday night, the cancan had been replaced by the clatter of tam-tams and tom toms as migrants chanted through megaphones on the steps of the 19th-century edifice, shouting: “Shame on this power who declares war on unaccompanied minors.”

Rather than crates of champagne, helpers carried boxes of fruit and vegetables into the theatre while volunteer doctors offered medical care in an outdoor tent.

For the past five weeks, the migrants have been occupying the Gaité.