AN ILLEGAL immigrant hid in the luggage compartment of a coach full of students for four hours before jumping out when the driver opened the door in Cirencester.

Pupils from Stroud-based Marling School were travelling home on the evening of Tuesday, September 23 after enjoying a four-day trip to the Battlefields of Belgium.

But unknown to the boys, the teachers and the coach driver, a man had been hiding in the luggage hold since Calais, France.

The illegal migrant was discovered when the driver stopped off at the first point home, outside the former Greasy Joes cafe in Cirencester.

The driver had heard a noise underneath the bus and opened the panel to the luggage hold to investigate.

A man, described by Gloucestershire Police as black and with curly hair, jumped out and ran off towards Tesco Extra.

He has since been arrested by officers, after the driver phone 999 to report the incident.

A spokesman for the Home Office has confirmed that the man was of Sudanese nationality and that his case was currently being processed.

Deputy headteacher at Marling School Jonathan Gannon said it was shame that such an incident occurred at the end of a great school trip.

“At no point was there any direct contact with staff or students and I’m grateful to the staff for their calm and reassuring manner with which they dealt with the incident,” said Mr Gannon.

A spokesman for the police said the man had seemed very distressed when found as it had been hot in the hold.

Police arrived at the scene after the incident occurred and spoke to students and parents waiting in the truck stop car park.

When the coach had arrived at the ferry terminal in Calais earlier that day, the coach was searched by officials and an illegal migrant was found in the luggage compartment under the bus.

However once the coach drove off the ferry at Dover and continued home to Gloucestershire, another man was on the coach, undiscovered. It is not clear whether this was the same man found in Calais by the officials, who had managed to sneak back aboard, or a different stowaway.