Migrant crisis: 71 bodies found in Austria lorry

Police in Austria say the bodies of 71 people, believed to be refugees, were discovered in an abandoned lorry found near the Hungarian border on Thursday. The victims included 59 men, eight women and four children who are thought to have been dead for about two days. Officials said the group appeared to be refugees from Syria and probably died after suffocating in the vehicle. Police in Hungary say they have arrested four people – three Bulgarians and one Afghan – linked to the lorry. The decomposing bodies were discovered by Austrian police officers on Thursday morning in the dumped lorry on the A4 motorway towards Vienna. The vehicle was towed to a customs building with refrigeration facilities where forensic teams worked through the night to examine the bodies. The group are thought to have been dead when the vehicle crossed into Austria from Hungary. Among the victims was a girl aged between one and two years old. The local police chief said a travel document found on the vehicle suggested that the group were Syrian migrants. "Our preliminary assumption is of course that they were refugees, possibly a group of Syrian refugees," Hans Peter Doskozil, Burgenland province police chief, told reporters. The vehicle had the branding of a Slovakian poultry company, Hyza, on it but the firm said it no longer owned the vehicle. Doskozil said it was unusual for people smugglers to use a refrigerated vehicle. "In our preliminary investigation we found that there was no ventilation possible through the sides of the lorry," he said, adding that the victims had probably suffocated. The four arrests took place in Hungary. "In addition, police have conducted house searches... and questioned almost 20 people as witnesses," Hungarian police said in a statement.
'Human trafficking operation'
Doskozil said one of the Bulgarians arrested is assumed to be the vehicle’s owner, while it is "highly likely" the other two are "the ones who drove the vehicle". He said there was "an indication we are talking about a Bulgarian-Hungarian human trafficking operation".
"If you look at the organisation of people traffickers, these are the lowest two levels of a criminal organisation," he added. No details have been given about the Afghan detainee. The lorry, which has Hungarian number plates, is understood to have left Budapest on Wednesday morning. It is believed to have been parked in the lay-by between Neusiedl and Parndorf for at least 24 hours before police discovered the bodies, according to BBC.
- biplab