AN asylum seeker handed himself over to authorities at a petrol station after getting out of a lorry near a busy motorway junction.

The 24-year-old man, who said he was from Iraq, went into the Shell petrol station at Paddock Services in Bury New Road at around 10.30pm on Tuesday October 4 and asked staff to call the police.

He said he had entered the county inside a lorry and had got out near Junction 17 of the M60.

Police arrived at the petrol station and arrested the man on suspicion of entering the UK illegally.

He was taken to Whitefield Police Station to wait for immigration officers who have now taken over the case.

A Home Office spokesman said the department does not comment in detail on individual cases, but that the man has made an immigration application “which will be dealt with in line with immigration rules”.

Because he is claiming asylum, the man is classed as vulnerable and the Home Office does not comment on incidents involving vulnerable people.

Decisions on asylum and human rights claims made in the UK are made by the UK Border Agency, which is an agency of the Home Office.

Asylum seekers are protected from deportation once they have made an asylum claim and are waiting for a decision.

The Home Office spokesman added: “If people witness activity they believe could be related to illegal immigration and require a rapid emergency response, they should report it to the police immediately via 999.”