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Pictures have emerged of journalists apparently being forced to hand over paperwork by police outside the top secret Bilderberg gathering of the world’s elite.

Guests at the conference, this year in Dresden, Germany, include ex-CIA and MI6 chiefs, royalty, top bankers and influential politicians.

But talks at the event are famously shrouded in mystery because no record is kept of who politicians meet or what is discussed sparking various internet conspiracy theories.

Now it has emerged that some reporters, despite acting legally, are attracting significant police attention amid tight security as they attempt to cover the conference.

Canadian journalist Lauren Southern of The Rebel Media revealed on Twitter how she and her crew had been ‘surrounded’ by German officers near the Taschenbergpalais Kempinski Grand Hotel where the conference is happening.

According to Breitbart, police took her passport before escorting each member of her crew behind a police vehicle where their mobile phones, laptops and camera equipment were inspected.

They were reportedly ‘released’ by officers after 40 minutes with Ms Southern telling her Twitter followers she had been given a ‘warning’.

At one point, she tweeted: ‘Taking us aside individually to search us and our stuff.’ She also wrote how she was ‘surrounded by police’.

She also retweeted Luke Rudkowski who wrote: ‘We are literally being spied on and followed by police everywhere we go here.’

About 130 guests, including ex-CIA chief David Petraeus, the Dutch king and Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, have been invited to the event.

Since its inception in 1954, Bilderberg has held annual gatherings of 120-150 invited political leaders and business experts.

This year, guests from the UK include former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers, now chairman of Macro Advisory Partners, and Robert Dudley, the group chief executive of BP.

Other Britons on the guest list include TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding, Marcus Agius, the chairman of PA Consulting Group, Labour’s MP for Bishop Auckland, Helen Goodman and Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-Chief at The Economist.

Computer game designer Demis Hassabis, HSBC Holdings group chairman, Douglas Flint, Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power, John Kerr, University of London research professor, Guy Standing and Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times are also invited.

Notable guests also include José Mauel Barroso, former President of the European Commission, the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Conspiracy theorists believe the meeting is where leaders plot world domination. Officially, it is claimed it is designed to ‘foster dialogue between Europe and North America’.

The group describes the conference as ‘a forum for informal, off-the-record discussions about megatrends and the major issues facing the world’ and states that the private nature of the meeting allows participants to ‘listen, reflect and gather insights’ without being bound by the conventions of office or by pre-agreed public positions.

There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.

However, its website reveals topics due for discussion this year include ‘Europe’, with subtopics listed as ‘migration, growth, reform, vision, unity’.

Russia, the Middle East, the US political landscape, cyber security and technological innovation will also be up for discussion.

Last year, George Osborne, his former Labour rival Ed Balls and BBC Trust chairman Rona Cameron attended the event.

The controversial group met in Watford in 2013, when there were protests outside and a heavy police presence.

Tory MP Ken Clarke, then a Cabinet minister, defended his decision to attend the four-day conference.

He was called to give an emergency statement to the Commons, but dismissed conspiracy theories about the secretive conference as ‘total, utter nonsense’ and questioned why sensible MPs would be ‘taken in by this sort of rubbish’.