Five illegal immigrants discovered at Army base after sneaking into UK aboard British military vehicles

Stunned soldiers had to wrestle two of the stowaways to the ground after discovering them as the vehicles returned from Kosovo.

Another three of the men leapt from the lorries in a desperate attempt to flee and were only captured with the help of police officers and sniffer dogs.

Security breach: The stowaways were found at the Duke of Gloucester Army barracks on Tuesday

After being rounded up, they were held captive by 35 battle-hardened troops before being removed to an immigration detention centre.

The stowaways are believed to have sneaked on board the convoy as it waited to cross the Channel at the French port of Calais on the way back from the Balkans.

After arriving at Dover, they remained undetected during the 170 mile trip across England to the Duke of Gloucester Barracks in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.

Their hiding place was only discovered during a security check at the base, which is used to move troops, weapons and vehicles to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldiers found two of the illegal immigrants as they removed protective canopies from the low-loader lorries at the barracks.

Army Captain Giles Cutter said: 'Fortunately there was a squadron on duty and a few burly Fijian soldiers wrestled the first two to the ground.

'We knew there was at least one left so we called a round-up operation.

'A further three individuals were apprehended and we had them all lying on the floor with 35 young soldiers surrounding them.

'They all seemed very jovial and quite happy.

'They did not seem concerned they had jumped into an army barracks.' 

A Gloucestershire police spokesman said servicemen at the barracks called them at 5pm on Tuesday afternoon.

'It seems that they had spotted people jumping out from under the canopies when the convoy came to a halt inside the camp.

'Police officers joined the search and it took about 20 minutes to round them all up with the help of a military sniffer dog.'

The stowaways were given food and water before being taken to a local police station from where they were handed to immigration officers.

The men included two Indians aged 24 and 26, two Afghans aged 16 and 18, and a 15-year-old Iranian, police said.

The convoy, which was driven by private contractors, was shipping military Land Rovers back from Kosovo to the UK.

The Ministry of Defence said there was no security breach as the illegal immigrants were discovered at the first military checkpoint.

A spokesman said: 'We can confirm that five individuals were detained at South Cerney on 15 July as part of normal security entry procedures and have been handed over to Gloucestershire Police.'

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: 'The five men were swiftly and successfully transferred to our specialist teams of UK Border Agency officers. We will remove those with no right to remain in the UK.'

Five years ago two illegal immigrants from Nepal were deported after they were found living and working in a British army base.

Kumar Gurung, 35, and his wife, Sunita, 20, had spent three years serving at a restaurant in Blandford Camp, Dorset, the headquarters of the Royal Corps of Signals and home to 5,000 army and civilian personnel.