Paralympic torch heads to Paris via Channel Tunnel

The build-up to the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris has seen the torch cross from England to France via the Channel Tunnel.

After being lit in Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement, the flame is making the journey to Paris to mark the start of the games.

On Sunday the relay saw 24 British athletes travel through the tunnel from Folkestone, joined halfway by 24 French athletes to hand over the flame.

On arriving on the French coast in Calais, the flame splits into 12 separate ones that will journey across France.

Guildford rowing club's Helene Raynsford, along with Gregor Ewan, lit the Paralympic flame.

Ms Raynsford was the first ever Paralympic champion in Para rowing when the sport made its debut at Beijing 2008, while Mr Ewan is a three-time Paralympian in wheelchair curling.

Among other places, the flames will visit Lyon, which will host 11 football matches during the games, and Lorient, which is home to double Paralympic sailing gold medallist Damien Seguin.

The cauldron in Paris will be lit when all 12 flames return to the city on 28 August, followed by 11 days of competition.

The games run until 8 September, with more than 4,000 athletes from around the world competing in 549 medal events across 22 sports.

Stoke Mandeville is now the permanent lighting point for all Paralympic torches, in the same way the Olympic Flame is kindled at Olympia in Greece.

In 1948 Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised the Stoke Mandeville Games, a competition for wheelchair athletes, held on the same day as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London.