16 stowaways found on Eurostar train

Sixteen stowaways were discovered hiding today on a cross-Channel Eurostar train in London. One was a three-year-old child.

Police were called to the Eurostar terminal at Waterloo after passengers on the train from Paris heard a knocking in storage compartments underneath the coaches.

Officers found five women, two men and nine children, aged between 3 and 15. They were believed to be Romanian, said a British Home Office spokesman.

The stoways were suffering from dehydration and were checked out by an ambulance crew before being taken to be questioned by immigration officers.

The company said it was investigating how the group gained access to the compartments.