THREE suspected illegal immigrants have been arrested after banging was heard coming from the back of a lorry in Worcester.

The lorry stopped on Wainwright Road, Warndon Villages, around 2pm after a car driving behind it heard loud bangs.

Police asked the couple who heard the banging to follow the lorry and, after following it for five miles, the vehicle pulled over and the driver walked off.

Officers arrived a few seconds later and they were able to point them in the direction of the driver.

Witness David Morris said he saw three people being put into a police van.

Mr Morris said there were four or five police cars in the area, as well as a police van and two police motorbikes.

Mr Morris said: "I was driving past and saw a truck stopped on the side of the road.

"Four or five police cars were nearby, and three people I saw sat on the bank were loaded into a police van."

Another witness and her partner, from Bewdley, were travelling behind the lorry as they left Worcestershire Royal Hospital after vising a relative.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, called police after hearing noises coming from the back of the lorry.

She said: "We had just come away from the hospital and the lorry in front had come off the M5 towards Blackpole.

"We could hear banging in the back of the lorry, and my partner said to call the police.

"The lorry driver then got out of the vehicle but did not open the back, so a policeman smashed open the back with a hammer.

"The first man out looked exhausted and they were banging really hard on the back door."

Both witnesses did not recognise the company that the lorry belongs to.

A police spokesman said: "Shortly before 2pm today, Tuesday 11 October, West Mercia Police received a call reporting suspicious activity involving a lorry in the Wainwright Road of Worcester.

"The lorry was stopped and three men were found in the rear of the vehicle. They were arrested on suspicion of immigration offences. The UK Border Agency has been informed."

The driver of the lorry was not arrested and was allowed to carry on.

It is believed by national newspapers that the lorry may have come from a Bulgarian company.