More than a dozen suspected illegal immigrants, including one child, have been found in the back of a lorry on a Kent motorway.

Kent Police stopped a truck on the London-bound carriageway of the M26, near Wrotham, at 10pm last night after receiving a call that there were people in a trailer.

It came as hundreds of other lorries were queuing on the coastbound carriageway of the M20 between junctions eight and nine, after Operation Stack was activated by police.

A spokesperson said: "Officers stopped the vehicle at a location close to junction 2a and detained 18 people, who have since been handed into the care of Home Office Immigration Enforcement."

The 18 people presented themselves as Eritrean and were made up of 11 men, six women and a child, who has since been passed to the care of social services.

A Home Office spokesperson added: "All cases will be progressed in line with the UK immigration rules."

Paramedics are also understood to have been at the scene though no injuries are believed to have been reported.

South East Coast Ambulance Service has been contacted for comment.