A man suspected of trying to smuggle himself into Britain illegally has been found dead inside a lorry that entered the UK from Calais, and may have been killed after its load crushed him to death.
Owners of the Airport Cafe in Sellindge, near Ashford, Kent, called police at around 8.30am on Tuesday, after a distressed lorry driver reported a body trapped between pallets of catalogues for children’s retailer Jojo Maman Bébé.
Paramedics from the South East Coast ambulance service (Secamb) pronounced the man dead at the scene.
It is understood the man, described as African in appearance, managed to evade border checks at Calais, where other would-be immigrants were detected, and again at Dover. It is not known at what point during the journey he was killed.
Pat Breen, 65, co-owner of the Airport Cafe, said the driver had parked the lorry and approached a member of his staff.
“He was obviously a bit panicked, saying ‘politsky, politsky’,” Breen said. “The wife spoke to him, he took her over to the lorry and asked her to go into the back. In the back, she saw a leg sticking out. The person didn’t seem to move or respond to any noise or shouting, so she assumed ...
“Her immediate thing was to come back and phone the police. She said she thought the person was probably dead. All the [emergency] services came.
“Since then we’ve found out that the driver reported immigrants at Calais in his vehicle. The vehicle was searched, they found immigrants and they removed them all, apart from the one that was hidden. [The lorry] was again checked at Dover; a dog was sent on which failed to find him. And at some time, the load was shifted and he was crushed between it.”
Breen said it was clear that the pallets holding the magazines had moved during the journey, trapping the man, who had attempted to conceal himself between them.
“He’d gone down between the pallets, I’m assuming it moved across and crushed him and he couldn’t breathe,” he said. “He’d disguised himself in the lorry by covering himself in these magazines, and apparently he’d taken cling film off the pallets to wrap himself in, to keep warm overnight or something.”
A spokeswoman for Kent fire and rescue service said firefighters had used a forklift truck to remove the load to allow officers and paramedics access to the man’s body. Secamb sent two paramedic cars and an ambulance to the incident. “Sadly the man was pronounced dead at the scene,” a spokesman said.
Kent police issued a statement stating they were called to the scene at 8.29am. “It is believed the lorry had travelled from France and inquiries are on-going to identify the man and ascertain the cause of death,” they added.
