Police forces have searched properties in four German states in a major raid against suspected members of a people-smuggling gang.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the operation on Wednesday morning in North Rhine Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein was aimed at executing several European arrest warrants.

Police authorities in France and Belgium also participated, the German ministry said. The suspects are said to have been involved in smuggling people across the English Channel.

The spokesman announced that the operation focussed on the western German state of North Rhine Westphalia.

Europol confirmed that the operation involved several European countries. However, details would not be provided until the afternoon, a spokeswoman for the police authority told dpa.