POLICE were today searching for a red and white KitKat trailer containing thousands of pounds worth of chocolate, after it was hijacked on a North Yorkshire road.

The lorry driver, a 30-year-old man from York, was stopped near Selby by at least three masked men as he drove to the Nestl Rowntree factory in Wigginton Road.

The man is said to have been left "very shaken" after he was threatened and bundled into the back of his own cab before being dumped on the M62 in Cheshire hours later.

Police later arrested two men in a barn near Skelmersdale, Lancashire, but the distinctive trailer carrying KitKats, Quality Street and mini-chocolate bars remains missing.

North Yorkshire Police spokesman Tony Lidgate said one of the men drove the lorry while the other hijackers physically restrained the driver.

He said: "Detectives would especially like to hear from anyone who saw the Kit Kat truck as they made their way home from a night out in Selby." The drama began on Wednesday night at about 11pm when the driver was stopped on the A1041 Camblesforth to Selby Road near to the new Selby bypass roundabout.

At least three masked men got out of a silver people carrier, restrained the driver and drove the vehicle through Selby, over the toll bridge.

Mr Lidgate said: "The route seems rather confused at this point, but it ended up going down the M62. It stopped at Newhay Road near Brighouse, in West Yorkshire, at junction 24 of the M62 as it had broken down." It is thought the offenders then stole an articulated tractor unit while the driver of the lorry was pushed into another vehicle and dumped on the M62 near Warrington at about 3am. The second tractor was hooked up to the stolen lorry and driven to an industrial estate in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Two patrolling police officers in the area saw the vehicle and became suspicious. They stopped the vehicles and two men ran off.

Two men were later arrested in a nearby barn. They were released today on police bail.

A spokeswoman for Nestl UK said the driver, who was driving from a Scunthorpe depot, was "thankfully unhurt", but had undergone a traumatic experience.

She although nothing like this had ever happened before, the company would be reviewing its lorry security in the light of Wednesday's incident. The employee was understood to have today returned to the York factory to speak to the police and colleagues about his ordeal.

Police have asked anyone with information about the incident, in particular people in Selby who may have seen the lorry, to call 01609 783131.

Updated: 10:52 Friday, June 20, 2003