Off the wire
• Urgent: Gold settles lower after U.S. jobs report  • Trump blasts another primary debate moderator as "third-rate radio announcer"  • Roundup: Tempers flare, police break up scuffles, refugees vow to walk to Vienna  • Second people smuggling tragedy in Austria narrowly averted: police  • Finland raises estimate of number of asylum seekers to 30,000  • Britain's seafood exports taking world by storm: minister  • Roundup: Strasbourg joins network of cities welcoming refugees  • Spanish stock market falls 2.2 pct, closes at 9,821 points  • Chinese resistance to fascism in WWII inspired Africa's freedom struggle: Kenyan scholar  • Roundup: Lithuania debating on taking up larger number of refugees  
You are here: 　 Home

Austrian police reveal new details surrounding people smuggling tragedy

Xinhua, September 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Austrian police have revealed new details surrounding the tragedy in which 71 illegal immigrants were found dead in a truck abandoned on a motorway in the nation's east.

In a press conference in the town of Eisenstadt on Friday, police chief for the state of Burgenland Hans Peter Doskozil confirmed that the occupants of the truck suffocated shortly after its departure in the south of Hungary near the Serbian border on Aug. 26.

It later crossed the Austrian border on the same day, by which time the occupants were already deceased, and was first inspected by authorities on the morning of Aug. 27.

Doskozil said the rear of the truck was airtight, and that the refrigeration unit was not attached, though this would not have brought fresh air to the occupants anyway, he added.

While autopsy results are expected to take another five to six weeks, a total 17 travel documents found on the deceased show Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq as countries of origin.

Doskozil said due to the fact that the bodies had begun decomposing, the identification of all the deceased may not be possible. He added that numerous alleged relatives had however contacted the police and that the police would accept samples to aid in identification.

Additionally the driver of the vehicle has been positively identified, handprints on the steering wheel as well as DNA samples proving a match to one of the suspects. Endit