Terrified residents filmed the riots from a nearby apartment.

Shocking video of the melee, which reportedly started after police arrested a man for being drunk and disorderly, was captured by residents overlooking the Stalingrad Metro station in northeast Paris.

According to Le Parisien newspaper, the migrants attacked police, vehicles, bystanders and each other in two massive brawls over the course of the night.

In the video, hundreds of migrants can be seen attacking each other with planks of wood, metal bars and pieces of debris, until police arrive and begin firing tear gas canisters.

Police told the newspaper after the first brawl at around 9pm “the situation gradually subsided”, but after the authorities left “spirits again became very heated” and at 11:30pm a second brawl broke out.

Two men were seriously wounded and taken to hospital.

The Eritreans, Sudanese, and Afghans were among the thousands who had been forcibly moved into Paris after the demolition of the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp.

While the migrants had been provided government accommodation, hundreds had decided to camp out on makeshift mattresses and set up tents in the Stalingrad Metro, which was renamed in 1946 in honour of the Soviet victory.

A group of nearly 1000 first set up camp in the station in early March.

Le Parisien reported French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had earlier announced the removal of the camp, but several hundred migrants returned two weeks later.

One local resident said there had “never been violence until now” in the area. Police on Friday said “investigators were still unaware” of the cause of the violence.