Seventeen asylum seekers were found hiding in a lorry at the Dutch port of Hoek van Holland on Saturday.

The lorry was about to board a ferry heading for Britain when a sniffer dog employed by the ferry company identified something suspicious. Police found 16 Iraqi men aged 15 to 32 and one Syrian woman aged 25 hiding in the back.

The lorry driver, a Polish national, is also being questioned, news agency ANP says.

Two other men, a 17-year-old Iraqi and a 20-year-old Syrian, were caught trying to climb into a lorry later that evening but the cases were not connected, police said.