POLICE today arrested a lorry driver and eight suspected illegal immigrants after an incident in Bexley.

The suspected stowaways - one as young as 12 - were rescued from the back of a tanker after they developed breathing difficulties.

The five men, two boys aged 12 and 16, and a 30-year-old woman were rescued as the German lorry approached Crossness Sewage Treatment Works via Harrow Manor Way, Thamesmead.

They were taken to Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich.

The patients were checked over for inhalation of a non toxic substance and then released into the hands of police.

Officers have also arrested the 55-year-old driver of the lorry.

The people were discovered in the back of the lorry at about 8.10am this morning.

Witnesses said the people inside the vehicle had black faces, burnt skin and "looked dead".

A police spokesman said the group were suffering as a result of the gas created by the tanker’s load.

The tanker was carrying a powdered carbon based chemical and police set up a 100-metre cordon while the fire brigade tested the material.

Lorraine Johnson, 57, of Sewell Road, Thamesmead, saw the rescue operation.

She said: "They were just pulling them out and laying them on the floor until the ambulance came. I thought they were all dead."

Road worker Peter Hobbs, 19, from Chatham, said: "Their faces were black. The skin had burned where the powder got on them."