At least 13 migrants — many of them minors — were rescued from a refrigerated lorry in northern France after locking themselves inside in a desperate attempt to reach the UK.
The incident took place on Saturday morning at the Saint-Hilaire-Cottes rest area on the A26 motorway, around 45 miles from Calais. The group, believed to be from Eritrea, had forced open the lorry’s rear doors while the driver slept.
The driver, transporting cherry tomatoes from Morocco to England, had parked to rest after a long journey. Once inside, the migrants locked themselves in but soon began to suffer from the extreme cold.
A fellow driver in the rest area reportedly heard muffled banging from inside the truck early in the afternoon. “The people inside were desperate — shouting and screaming — but the sounds were extremely muffled,” a source said.
Emergency services, including paramedics and 10 gendarmes, arrived around 3 p.m. All 13 were evacuated to a field hospital, with four later rushed to emergency wards in Arras and Saint-Omer due to hypothermia and other conditions.
Adult members of the group were questioned by police, while minors were placed under the care of social services and a charity specialising in migrant children.
Christian Vedelago, chief of staff for the Pas-de-Calais prefect, said their condition suggested they had been inside the lorry for several hours.
