Refugee crisis: Migrants rescued from locked lorry in Leicestershire after boy texts 'no oxygen' to volunteer

Leicestershire police rescued 15 people from the back of a lorry after seven-year-old Ahmed raised the alarm

Refugees in Calais attempting to get on board lorries ending to the UK (Getty Images)

A seven-year-old Afghan boy has been rescued from a lorry along with 14 others after he sent a text message to a charity volunteer saying he feared he would suffocate.

Liz Clegg, who went with a group of volunteers to help refugees in Calais earlier this year, was at a conference in New York on Friday when she received the message from the boy - Ahmed - which said they were suffocating at the back of a lorry somewhere in England and the driver had refused to stop.

The message read: "I ned halp darivar no stap car no oksijan in the car no signal iam in the cantenar. Iam no jokan valla."

Ahmed meant to write: "I need help. The driver won't stop the car. No oxygen in the car. No signal. I'm in a container. I am not joking. I swear to God."

Ms Clegg said she and the other volunteers had handed out hundreds of basic mobile phones to children living in the camp while they were there and gave them their numbers in case of emergency.

She said she knew Ahmed wouldn’t make something like that up so she called Tanya Freedman from the Help Refugees charity in London who called the police.

Ms Freedman said: "Around about lunchtime they received a text message which roughly said, 'I'm in a truck, it's not stopping, I've got no oxygen ... help'.

"Because they were in New York and I was in London they rang me straight away and I got hold of Kent Police.

Police officers try to prevent migrants from climbing aboard trucks travelling to Britain, outside Calais last year (Getty)

"I conveyed to them that it was a life-and-death situation.

"I had Ahmed's number and the first thing they did was find an interpreter who spoke Pashto to talk to him.

“They called him and immediately they realised it was an emergency, and they were able to put a trace of his cellphone and find out he was in a lorry in Leicestershire."

Kent Police then called their colleagues in Leicestershire who found the lorry at a motorway service station and broke into the back to rescue the people inside.

Ahmed is thought to have stowed away on a lorry bound for the UK with his elder brother.

Fourteen people were arrested on suspicion of being illegal entrants to the UK. In addition, a man was arrested on suspicion of assisting illegal entry.

A police spokeswoman said one child had been put into protective custody but did not release a name because they were a minor.

The case is now being dealt with by immigration services.

Additional reporting by agencies