Suspected illegal immigrants cause rush hour motorway chaos after leaping into traffic from back of moving lorry during cop chase
Several migrants were hit by cars after they bailed out of a refrigerated truck in a last-ditch attempt to evade police
RECKLESS migrants threatened rush hour carnage by leaping into motorway traffic from a moving lorry.
The desperate stowaways jumped from the foreign refrigerated truck at speeds of 40mph in a bid to escape cops after a 35 mile chase.
An eyewitness claimed at least one was hit by a car while others reported ‘bodies’ strewn across the road, with one illegal bent double across the roadside barrier.
Police confirmed 16 suspected illegal immigrants, including women and one child, were detained at scene - but incredibly said none had suffered serious injuries.
Miraculously no drivers were hurt as the chaos erupted in the northbound filter lane at junction 11 of the M1, near Dunstable, Beds., at around 3pm yesterday.
Panicked motorists called for action following the near miss, warning “it’s a matter of time before someone is killed”.
Lorry driver Ron Beresford, 63, said: “I looked up and saw migrants jumping out of back of lorry.
“There must have been more than 20 of them.
“I couldn’t believe it.
“The road was packed and they seemed to be everywhere.
“I swear I saw them get hit by cars.
“About eight or nine of them looked like they had been hit.
“They were all over the road.
"Other cars and lorries behind it were skidding to a stop to try to avoid hitting them."
“I saw one man get hit at what must have been 35mph.
“He got flipped around and landed across the barrier.
"He must have been seriously hurt at the least.
“I don’t know what happened to him after that.
The dad-of-three, of Hemel Hempstead, Herts., added: "As I kept driving south I saw loads of ambulances and paramedic cars going past, it looked really bad, total carnage.
“It feels like it’s just a matter of time until this madness leads to someone being killed.”
Disabled driver Gareth Pritchard, 47, of Staines, was driving his girlfriend factory worker Fiona MacKenzie, 42, home to Northampton.
He said: “I thought they were all dead when I first saw them.
“There were bodies everywhere.
“There were lying on the road and across the barriers.
“I have counted at least 15 of them.
“It was totally harrowing to see.
“How desperate must they have been to have jumped like that?"
Conservative MP for South West Bedfordshire Andrew Selous said: “No-one wants to see any more of these near misses.
“If they were running out on the M1 it means my constituents could have been killed on their way home from work.
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“It’s just appalling and simply unacceptable.
“I hope the police are able to mount a successful prosecution against everyone involved in this trafficking.”
Cops in Essex first became suspicious the vehicle was packed with migrants as it passed through the county earlier yesterday.
Two officers from Essex Police pursued the truck at least 35 miles from their own force boundary, along the M25 through Hertfordshire to the M1.
As they closed in on the truck the stowaways started leaping from it while still moving, at around 3pm.
The slip road was shut to allow emergency services to reach the scene.
A police chopper continued searching the area around the M1 into the evening amid fears some of the migrants had managed to get off the motorway and evade cops.
Cops confirmed six of the hideaways had been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties after being cooped up in the sealed truck.
An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said all the migrants had been assessed as “stable” at the scene.
The illegals were expected to be taken into police custody last night where they were set to be questioned by the UK Border Agency.
There nationalities were thought to possibly be "Syrian" or "Afghan".
The Romanian lorry driver was not arrested at the scene but sources said it was possible this “could change” later.