Austrian Police Find At Least 20 Migrants Dead in Truck

Austrian police found dead bodies of several migrants in a truck south of Vienna on Thursday on the A4 highway.

Police believe the refugees suffocated, with at least 20 people dying.

The food-deliver truck was found along Austria’s A4 autobahn near the town of Parndorf, which is not far from the border with Hungary and Slovakia.

“Unfortunately there are many dead people in there,” the spokesperson said.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner espressed regret at the findings and said, “This day is a dark day for us”.

Doskozil said the truck, with Hungarian licence plates, was found on the shoulder of the highway.

The Guardian writes: “Road employees spotted the lorry and alerted the police”. She said that Austria would adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards the mafia gangs responsible for the tragedy.

Gerald Pangl, a police spokesman in the Austrian state of Burgenland, told NBC News that the dead were thought to be migrants. One of the drivers had 34 people packed in the back of a truck, the Guardian reports.

The group is understood to include 10 small children, whom the driver abandoned by the side of the motorway near the city of Bruck an der Leitha.