There were "severe delays" on the M20 after police closed a section of the motorway for nearly four hours when nine suspected migrants were found in the back of a lorry.

Officers were called to junction 9 for Ashford just after 3.40pm after receiving calls stowaways had been discovered in a trailer.

One lane of the London-bound carriageway later reopened, but seven miles of queues had built up with average journey times said to be an hour and a half longer than normal.

A police spokesman said: "Officers attended the London-bound carriageway between junctions 9 and 8 where the lorry was stopped.

"Nine people were checked as a precaution by the South East Coast Ambulance Service before they were passed to Home Office immigration officers.

The London-bound carriageway was closed while officers dealt with the incident."

The road eventually fully reopened just before 7.30pm.

It comes on the day a murder investigation was launched after 39 bodies were found inside a lorry container near the Dartford Crossing.

Read more: All the latest news from Ashford