  We perform a detailed analysis of the potentiality of the CERN Large Hadron
Collider to study the single production of leptoquarks via $pp \to e^\pm q\to$
leptoquark $\to e^\pm q$, with $e^\pm$ generated by the splitting of photons
radiated by the protons. Working with the most general $SU(2)_L \otimes U(1)_Y$
invariant effective lagrangian for scalar and vector leptoquarks, we analyze in
detail the leptoquark signals and backgrounds that lead to a final state
containing an $e^\pm$ and a hard jet with approximately balanced transverse
momenta. Our results indicate that the LHC will be able to discover leptoquarks
with masses up to 2--3 TeV, depending on their type, for Yukawa couplings of
the order of the electromagnetic one.
