A refrigerated truck full of 71 refugees, including 59 men, 8 women and 4 children suffocated after being abandoned on a motorway near Vienna. Austrian authorities said they believed the victims were Syrian refuges and confirmed Hungarian police had arrested seven men and still had three in custody, two Bulgarian nationals and one carrying a Hungarian ID card.
“The truck was found by an Austrian motorway patrol near the Hungarian border just before lunchtime on Thursday, with fluids from the decomposing bodies seeping from its back door. When they opened it, there was a powerful stench of human decay and the bodies lay piled on top of each other, crammed into a small rectangular space in a sea of tangled limbs,” said Austrian police.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is in Austria for a summit with Balkan leaders on the crisis said, “I was shaken by the horrible news. Human traffickers are criminals.”
On the other hand, Hungary said it would join the investigation into the tragedy. Thursday’s grim discovery in Austria brought home how dangerous the land journey for migrants through eastern and south-eastern Europe is, after many have already survived a perilous sea crossing.
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