A STOWAWAY found strapped beneath a coach in a Bolton lorry park after a 300-mile journey had to be rescued by firemen.
The alarm was raised after bangs and shouts were heard coming from underneath a coach left at Bolton Lorry Park early yesterday morning.
The 21-year old man, believed to be an illegal immigrant, faced being crushed to death underneath the coach, which had been parked up after dropping off passengers following a holiday on the Continent. 
Firefighters were called in to free the man, who was tied to the underneath of the coach by the straps on his rucksack.
It is believed he climbed under the vehicle near Calais before the coach boarded a ferry bringing it back to England.
The coach driver had finished dropping off passengers, who had been on a four day break to Normandy organised by Surrey-based Newmarket Holidays, and the vehicle had no paying customers on it when it parked up in Mill Street park in Bolton in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The driver went home, but another driver nearby heard bangs and shouting and contacted the coach driver who returned and discovered the trapped stowaway.
Police, ambulance and two fire crews from Bolton Central and Farnworth fire stations, along with a specialist appliance from Leigh, attended the scene at around 6.50 am and remained for more than two hours.
Jacks normally used to raise Metrolink tram carriages were needed to lift the coach and free the man.
Michelle Lynn, whose family own Bolton Lorry Park, said: “The man was shouting but he was able to walk to the stretcher.”
She added: “They had to cut the strap of his rucksack to release him.”
The man had become trapped when the coach was parked up and the air release system meant the coach sank lower than it does when travelling.
He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital by ambulance. His condition is not known.
Newmarket Holidays marketing director Phil O’Sullivan said that the coach had been hired by his company from Burnley-based transport firm Mario Coach Travel to take customers on a short break to Normandy in France.
Mr O’Sullivan said that he supposes that the stowaway got onboard the coach at Calais. “Unfortunately it is a common occurrence,” he said.
Mr O’Sullivan added that, although there are strict standards about safeguarding coaches from illegal stowaways, he is not surprised it happened.
“It is more surprising that he was only found when it parked up in Bolton,” he said. No one from Mario Travel was available to comment.
A spokesman for the Home Office said: "Immigration Enforcement was contacted by Greater Manchester Police after a 21-year-old man was arrested for suspected immigration offences in Mill Street, Bolton. The man is currently detained awaiting interview."