
A group of 15 suspected illegal migrants, including a couple with two children, were treated at the side of a motorway today after travelling for hours in the back of a lorry reportedly refrigerated to -25C.

Emergency services rushed to Clacket Lane service station on the M25 in Surrey this morning after the driver of a freezer lorry heard loud banging coming from the back of his truck.

Police arrived at the scene to find the group huddled inside the lorry, which was carrying Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes.

It is believed they clung together in sleeping bags and blankets during their trip from the continent to the UK, where they were picked up over an hour from the Port of Dover.

Five were taken to hospital and one was still being treated last night for suspected hypothermia.

A group of adults, including a couple with two children, have been found in the back of a freezer lorry on the M25 at Clacket Lane services

The men and at least one woman were given blankets after apparently hiding in the lorry with a freezer set to -25C

It is believed the group had used these blankets and sleeping bags to keep themselves warm as temperatures plummeted

Police closed the petrol station slip road and detained the lorry occupants on suspicion of illegal entry into the country.

It is not known where the group boarded the lorry and where it had travelled to before entering Dover.

Pictures from the scene show a group of men clothed in blankets at the Surrey service station.

They were given food and warm drinks to recover from the hours they had spent in the cold.

A pile of sleeping bags and coats, which the group are believed to have used in a bid to keep themselves warm, were seen piled at the back of the truck

The lorry, registered to a company in Shropshire, was carrying Aunt Bessie's Crispy Homestyle Roast Potatoes.

UK Visa and Immigration are set to take over the investigation.

A witness said: ‘They are lucky to be alive. That’s a refrigerated lorry, they could have died. It’s utter madness. It is terrifying to think that we could have had 15 dead in the back of a lorry in Britain. What is this world coming to?’

Another witness added: ‘This sort of thing happens all the time around here. There’s loads of people wandering around, looking lost. I bet those guys though were absolutely freezing.’

Clacket Lane services is a popular place for truckers to take a break on their journey from the Channel ports.

Police are handing over the investigation of the incident to border officials as the lorry had come from the Port of Dover

Police closed the petrol station slip road and detained the lorry occupants on suspicion of illegal entry into the country

The lorry was transporting a load of Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes (pictured), reportedly at sub-zero temperatures

The lorry had driven from the Port of Dover, leading to suspicions the men found inside the vehicle are illegal migrants

Police said the driver of the white freezer lorry, operated by Cheshire-based firm Dale Brothers, stopped after reporting he had heard loud banging from inside the vehicle.

Surrey Police Inspector Alan Nicholls told BBC News: ‘We received a couple of phone calls – one from the lorry driver and one from the people inside the lorry – that he had heard noises inside it and that people inside were saying there were 40 of them and some of them were dead. None of them, I’m pleased to say, are dead.’

The group included a couple with two children. Another five claim to be juveniles, who will be handed over to social services.

Police last month found ten Iraqi migrants including a 20-day-old baby in a lorry on the M1, near Northampton. They were only saved from death after their gasps of ‘no air’ were heard by passers-by.

The incident is the latest in a long line of similar circumstances in south east England involving suspected illegal immigrants