British adventurer Karl Bushby, 57, is close to completing a 36,000-mile round-the-world journey begun in 1998, but French officials look set to block him from swimming the English Channel to finish the final leg. The ex-paratrooper, who has already been refused permission by Eurotunnel to walk under the sea, now faces objections from French coastguards, leaving the end of his 28-year odyssey in doubt.

Bushby set off from Chile in 1998 and has reached Belgium, with the rules of his challenge forbidding him from using any transport to reach his home city of Hull, East Yorkshire. In June, Eurotunnel declined his request to walk along a service tunnel on safety and operational grounds, leaving swimming as his only option. However, French authorities say the country tolerates Channel swims only from the UK coast to France, citing a 2018 "prefectoral order". Bushby, who hopes to attempt the swim in October, said his team is in talks with the French coastguard, which has referred them to Channel crossing bodies.