A bus driver taking British schoolchildren home from a trip to France was shocked to discover two illegal migrants hitching a ride under the wheel arches after hearing banging noises. The men were thought to have climbed into a void behind the vehicle’s tyres while it was parked up at a beach near Calais. Their presence went unnoticed until the driver heard banging and cheering under the bus as it was travelling on the M11 in Essex – as the stowaways celebrated smuggling themselves into the UK.

Once discovered, the men attempted to convince the driver that they were among the 50 schoolchildren aged between 11 and 12 travelling on the bus – and were promptly accused of “bullsh**ting” him. An anonymous parent who had been helping out on the school trip said several staff members had begun hearing noises that seemed to be coming from underneath the vehicle after it re-entered England. “They heard a knock. It was like a knock on the door,” they told MailOnline. “And then something like cheering.”

“They then tried to start pulling over and the wheels touched a bit of gravel on the floor, which then got spat up by [the] wheels,” the parent added.

“They heard someone shouting ‘hey’ and then they knew there was someone stowed away under the coach.”

A teacher at the British secondary school called the police, who reportedly told the driver to continue at around 45mph on the hard shoulder until they reached the next service station – Birchanger, on junction 8 of the motorway.

“The poor driver was in a terrible situation, if he slowed down too much, there was a chance they would either get out [or] get caught in the wheels and die,” the eyewitness said.

“It would have been death and carnage – and the kids were going to see that and be scarred for life.”

They added that the driver had been “amazing” at ensuring the children wouldn’t find out what was going on – turning up the music to hide the banging down below and asking them to pull all the curtains closed.

It wasn’t long before the bus was stopped by the Highways Agency for travelling in the hard shoulder, however, and the two immigrants were discovered hiding in its wheel arches.

Police then arrived to take the men into custody, but another parent said the “hold-up” meant the trip didn’t arrive back at its destination until after 11pm that night.

“It’s a total shock because they could have been any two people,” the parent added. “Thankfully they did not try to do anything, but I feel uneasy knowing they were close to my child.”

Last month, it was revealed that over 12,000 migrants have arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel so far in 2025 – marking a record number of arrivals for the first five months of a year.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said an investigation was underway into how the migrants were able to hide under the coach.

They added: “We are relentless in our pursuit of people-smuggling gangs and stand ready to respond to all methods, including coaches and other clandestine routes, using a wide range of techniques and technology to protect our border security.”