Thousands Of Lettuces Unloaded In Immigration Search
12 February 2019, 16:15 | Updated: 12 February 2019, 18:00
Four men and two children were arrested after they were found in the back of a lorry carrying thousands of lettuces in north Hampshire.
Firefighters said they were called to a lorry on Newbury Road in Whitchurch, Hampshire, in the early hours of Tuesday morning to remove boxes of the vegetable.
Police had attended the scene at around 11pm on Monday when four men, who said they were from Iran and Iraq, and two children were found.
The ages of the children have not been disclosed but it is understood they are teenagers.
Police arrested all six on suspicion of illegally entering the country, a Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said.
The Home Office said no criminal action was being taken against any of the people found.
The children had been taken into care and all of the people will be processed under immigration rules, a spokeswoman added.
Fire crews joked about the incident with puns on the Whitchurch Fire Station Twitter account.
A post said (sic): "Sitting comfortably? Then #lettuce begin..... fire call in the early hours with Overton & @Basingstoke_01 which required us to empty boxes of 1000's of lettuces for a search of an LGV. Just the tip of the #iceberg in the variety of calls we deal with at #teamhants."
