One suspected illegal migrant found in lorry at Forest Hill layby between Oxford and Wheatley

Two drivers of a lorry carrying cargo from the Czech Republic to Oxford told the Mail about the moment they heard knocking coming from inside the back of their vehicle.

The woman has now been handed over to the UK border agency, police said.

Petr and George, who spoke very little English, said they had been parked in the layby near Forest Hill overnight.

They said they heard knocking coming from inside their lorry and got someone to call the police.

Officers arrived a found a young woman hiding inside the vehicle.

The drivers said sniffer dogs at border control in Calais found five people in their lorry trying to cross the English Channel.

• The scene in Calais, where migrants have sought passage to the UK.

They added they were waved through and passed border control when they arrived on British soil. 

Kevin Oliver, who runs a burger van in the area said the Czech lorry driver had alerted him to the presence of suspected illegal immigrants this morning.

The 40-year-old said: "I was serving customers when he came up to me; he could hardly speak English but imitated someone knocking on the side of the van.

"We went over and I knocked on the side of the van, and they knocked back.

"I called 999 at about 10am and 15 minutes later the police turned up. One girl in her 20s was taken away."

Mr Oliver (pictured), from Drayton, said he had never known for a situation like this to happen before.

He added: "I'm here six days a week and we get a lot of European lorries. Some have turned out of here the wrong way into the road, but I've never known anything like this to happen."

Lucy Billen spokeswoman for the police said: "We were called at 10.04am to a report that there was someone in the back of a lorry in a layby on A40 at Forest Hill.

"We arrived and detained a woman on suspicion of immigration offences.

"She was taken to custody and will be subsequently transferred to the relevant authorities."