FIFTEEN suspected illegal immigrants - ten of them youngsters - are being investigated by immigration officers after being found in a truck at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Flights had to be delayed at the airport after the people, believed to be Kosovo-Albanians and one Montenegran, fled from their hiding place and dashed onto the runways.

Airport security guards rounded them up, and thoroughly searched the airport grounds in case any more were in hiding.

The children, believed to be aged up to 17, are currently in the care of Leeds Social Services, while the four men and one woman in their 20s are being held at a detention centre in Doncaster. The Immigration Authority is to review their cases.

Airfield services manger Andy Rackham said the immigrants leapt from an articulated lorry in the

airport's freight area, and dashed past a security point into the operational area of the airfield.

He said: "We rounded them up fairly quickly, and police were called in. There was a few minutes' delay to flights, but nothing major."

Mr Rackham confirmed the immigrants had not arrived at the airport by air.

A 58-year truck driver, believed to be a German national, has been questioned by Weetwood Police in connection with the incident.

An Immigration Authority spokesman could not confirm rumours the immigrants came into the country by hiding in the truck on a ferry

crossing. He said he did not believe any of the immigrants was in need of medical attention.