Boy migrants found gassed inside tanker

Firefighters pulled them from the vehicle, which had travelled from Germany, after they were overcome by fumes. The immigrants, including two boys aged 12 and 16, were lying on blankets inside the tanker trailer, which was half-filled with a chemical powder.

Witnesses told how they were laid on the ground like corpses as rescuers in chemical protection gear and breathing apparatus tried to revive them.

The group, thought to be from Afghanistan, Iraq or Eritrea, were recovering in hospital today. The lorry driver, a 55-year-old German, was arrested at the scene.

The drama unfolded this morning in Harrow Manorway, Abbey Wood, half a mile from the lorry's destination - Crossness sewage works by the river near Thamesmead.

The driver stopped when he heard banging from the trailer, which was carrying lignite-coke used to clean emissions from waste incinerators.

One witness, builder Peter Hobbs, 19, said: "The driver was beeping the horn, saying to us, 'Someone's in the back.' I heard banging and we called police straight away. They were white people but their faces looked black because of the burns they had suffered. Some of them couldn't even move and they were falling on the floor."

Lorraine Johnson, 57, said: "The Fire Brigade arrived and they started pulling bodies through the hatches. There were four of them to each body and they laid them side by side on the grass in a line.

"They put oxygen masks on them. I thought they were dead but then they put them on stretchers and some were taken to a helicopter."

Firefighters used thermal imaging cameras to find the men in the pitch dark of the trailer. They were on top of the lignite-coke, which half-filled the space.

They were treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and Queen Mary's, Sidcup, for inhaling fumes. Immigration officers were waiting to interrogate them once doctors gave the go-ahead.

Thames Water said the driver was taking the lignite-coke to Crossness, which is one of the biggest sewage sites in London. The substance was to be used to clean emissions from a plant which burns waste to generate electricity.

A London Fire Brigade source said there were reports the substance was "activated" - meaning it had been mixed with water or air, causing the noxious fumes.

A police spokesman said: "At 8am emergency services were called after the driver of a tanker stopped to check his vehicle which was carrying carbon-based substance.

Eight people were found at the rear of the tanker suffering from effects of gas emitting from the load."

London Ambulance Service sent a hazardous area response team, an air ambulance and several ambulances to the scene. A spokesman said: "We treated eight people with breathing difficulties. Their condition is not believed to be serious - we are talking about respiratory problems." A Thames Water spokesman said: "There was no risk to the public but you would not want to breathe [lignite-coke] in because it is such a fine powder."

The eight men could now claim asylum. But because there is proof that their journey to Britain passed through Germany, current rules mean that they have no prospect of success. A Border and Immigration Agency spokesman said: "We are investigating an incident with Metropolitan police involving eight suspected illegal immigrants.

"There will inevitably be occasions when illegal entrants manage to penetrate, and some do so in lorries. But detection technology, penalties on hauliers, and closer cooperation with EU counterparts are clamping down. Last year overseas immigration controls in France and Belgium stopped 17,000 people crossing illegally."