One person has died and seven people have been injured following a high-speed chase between police and a British-registered car in France and Belgium that ended in mass crash.

The incident began when a lorry driver found immigrants inside his parked vehicle.

After police arrived, four suspected Iraqi people smugglers sped off in a British-registered Audi. They were chased down by Belgian police, who then shot at their speeding car on the other side of the French border near Dunkirk.

French police said the car skidded on burst tyres into several vehicles involved in an earlier minor road accident on the A16 motorway.

The four occupants were taken to hospital in Lille by helicopter. Local media reports said that two of them had been struck by bullets.

Police inspect the site of an accident on the A16 motorway in Coudekerque (Getty Images)

Later, a Dutch mototcyclist was killed when he ran into a truck which was part of a tail-back caused by the first incident.

Rescue workers evacuate an injured person (Getty Images)

French police, talking to the website of the regional newspaper, la Voix du Nord, said Belgian police had been pursuing the Audi at 120mph towards the French border.

They suspected its occupants of being people smugglers involved in the trafficking of migrants seeking to reach Britain.