The bodies of more than 70 dead migrants have been recovered from an abandoned truck found on an Austrian motorway, more than the initial estimate of between 20 and 50, the Austrian government said Friday.
28.08.2015
(AFP) The bodies of more than 70 dead migrants have been recovered from an
abandoned truck found on an Austrian motorway, more than the initial
estimate of between 20 and 50, the Austrian government said Friday.
The number was confirmed by interior ministry spokesman
Alexander Marakovits. The lorry was found on Thursday morning on a
motorway near the borders with Slovakia and Hungary.
No further details on the identities, ages or origin of the dead was
available, but Austrian police in the eastern state of Burgenland were
due to give a news conference at 11am.
The refrigerated, 7.5-tonne lorry had Hungarian number plates and the
markings of a Slovakian poultry firm. The driver was nowhere to be seen
and Austrian and Hungarian police have launched a joint investigation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in Austria for a summit with Balkan
leaders on Europe's migrant crisis on Thursday, said she was "shaken" by
the "horrible" news.
"This is a warning to us to tackle this migrants issue quickly and in
a European spirit, which means in a spirit of solidarity, and to find
solutions," Merkel said.