POLICE are questioning four suspected illegal immigrants whose discovery brought Southampton's container port to a standstill - as they tried to flee the UK.

Officers swooped on Southampton Container Terminal after the would-be migrants were spotted at the DP World site in the early hours of yesterday.

Initially, a police spokesman said the four men were being detained on suspicion of trying to enter the UK illegally.

However, last night the Home Office said it was their understanding the men, from Morocco and Syria, were in fact trying to leave the country and confirmed they were not found in a container.

The 80-hectare terminal, which handles two million containers a year, came to a halt following the discovery.

As reported yesterday by the Daily Echo, all commercial activity at the site was suspended as police combed the site in a bid to find any other immigrants hiding on the premises.

Southampton is said to be Europe’s most efficient container terminal and normally boasts a truck turn-around time of just 30 minutes.

But sources say the security lockdown led to long delays, with lorry drivers having to wait for several hours.

Last night some reports suggested that the four men tried to make a run for it before being detained.

DP World, which operates the terminal, said: “Operations at the terminal were suspended for a period of time while a complete sweep of the site was undertaken in conjunction with the police.

“All three intruders were arrested and police are dealing with this matter further. Terminal operations resumed at 7am.”

In a bulletin issued to its customers DP World said: “Operations were suspended at the terminal due to persons unknown being found in our stacking area.

“As a matter of safety and security operations were suspended so that we could carry out a detailed search of our site.”

Associated British Ports, which owns Southampton docks, declined to comment.

Police referred all inquiries to the UK Border Agency.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Border Force was contacted by Hampshire Police after four males were arrested in a restricted area of Southampton docks in the early hours of yesterday morning.

“The males, from Morocco and Syria, are currently being interviewed by Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers.”

Southampton is the UK’s second largest container terminal. The new SCT 5 berth boasts a 500-metre quay that was built at a cost of £110 million and can accommodate the largest vessels in the world.

The incident comes after weeks of chaos at Calais, where refugees fleeing the war in Syria and atrocities by ISIS have set up camp in hope of getting to Britain via the Channel Tunnel.

David Cameron has been criticised recently for using language such as "swarm" which opponents say dehumanises the refugees as they try and flee persecution for the safety of Europe.

Last year, the UK had 31,000 applications from asylum seekers, while Germany had 202,000, Sweden 81,000 and France and Italy had 64,000 each.

The UK has 494 asylum applications per 1m of population, which leaves the nation 20th out of 31 European states, when it comes to number of refugees per head of population.