AUSTRIA — Three people have been arrested after dozens of bodies — most likely those of migrants fleeing war-ravaged Syria — were found inside an abandoned truck on an Austrian highway.
The 71 victims comprised of 60 men, 8 women and three children — ages 2, 3, and 8, officials said at a news conference Friday.
Officials also found a Syrian travel document inside the truck.
“We must assume now that these are refugees,” Hans Peter Doskozil, police director of Austria’s Burgenland region, said. “In concrete terms it is possible, this is a Syrian refugee group.”
The truck was found Thursday, abandoned on the side of the A4 highway, which links Budapest in Hungary to the Austrian capital, Vienna. When police opened the back of it, they found the bodies decomposing in the heat.
Police in Hungary arrested three people: a Bulgarian national of Lebanese origin, who owned the truck; and two drivers.
The grim discovery came just a day after the Italian coast guard said 54 people lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean. It highlighted once again the scale of the migration crisis gripping Europe.
“This horrible crime shows that we must get even tougher in the battle against people smuggling,” Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said at a news conference.
“People smugglers are criminals and not well-minded helpers. They do not care about the well-being of the refugees, they care about profit.”
