Police Arrest 27 Migrants Found In M25 Lorry

Police have arrested 27 suspected illegal immigrants who were found inside a lorry at a motorway service station.

The discovery was made at Cobham Service Station on the M25 around 10.50am, Surrey Police said. The lorry driver has also been detained.

A police statement said: "Surrey Police was called to Cobham Service Station at around 10.50am on Friday, 28 August following suspicions around a lorry parked at the location.

"On arrival 27 people were detained on suspicion of illegal entry. Ambulance crews also attended the scene and medically assessed the people.

"Surrey Police have now handed this investigation to the UK Visas and Immigration Service."

Lorry driver Sean Ingham, 48, stopped at Cobham Service Station while driving to Kent from Manchester.

He saw the suspected illegal migrants gathered outside a refrigerated trailer with Italian licence plates.

"I drove into the services needing a break and I saw what I thought was a demonstration in the car park," he said.

"As I looked closer, I thought they looked like illegal immigrants. There were lots of police, three or four motorway police vehicles and dog vans, and two or three transits.

"The people all had sleeping bags round them or had big coats with them. It looked like they had come from an Italian-registered fridge trailer as it had Italian number plates.

"Just as I was about to leave immigration officers arrived, and they were taking down their names and taking their photographs, and then putting them into police vans.

"Some of (the suspected illegal immigrants) were smiling and talking. They were drinking bottles of water."

The arrests come after police in Austria revealed that 71 migrants - including several children - were found dead inside a lorry .

Police said the corpses inside the vehicle were so decomposed it was difficult to estimate how many people had died.

It was originally thought there were between 20 and 50 people inside the lorry.

Investigators have been examining the vehicle, with an Austrian police chief saying several of the immigrants were refugees from Syria.