Two men became trapped in a shipping container full of cocaine in the port of Antwerp on Wednesday, the hottest day ever recorded in Belgium.

As the heat rose, they made a desperate call to the police emergency line, Antwerp prosecutors said.

It took officers two hours to find the container in the huge port, western Europe's main gateway for smuggled drugs.

Guns drawn, police opened the door and the exhausted pair, stripped to the waist, gratefully gave themselves up.

A social media video of the arrests shows port employees pouring water on the suspects to cool them as afternoon temperatures skirted 40 degrees Celsius.

According to a statement from Antwerp prosecutors the men, aged 24 and 25, had entered the container "to remove drugs".

The pair appeared in court on Thursday and were remanded in custody.

Officials have not confirmed the size of the cocaine haul found in the container, but local Antwerp newspaper the Gazet said it could have been hundreds of kilos.

More than 50 tonnes of cocaine from Latin America were seized in Belgium's biggest port last year, the largest volume ever recorded.

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