Four children among migrant truck deaths

Budapest (MTI) – Hungarian police have arrested three Bulgarians and an Afghan national in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants, including four children, found in a truck on Austria’s A4 motorway, the spokeswoman of the National Police Headquarters said on Friday.

Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said police have filed charges against the suspects for their preliminary detention. Police are interviewing a further twenty people as witnesses, she added.

Burgenland province police chief Hans Peter Doskozil told a press conference on Friday that there were 59 men, eight women and four children among the dead. The children included an infant girl and three boys aged 8-10, he told MTI. He said the migrants are likely to have suffocated but further investigation, including the probe of mobile phones and bags found in the compartment was needed.

He said police believe that a Bulgarian-Hungarian human smuggling ring was responsible for the crime.

Csiszer-Kovacs noted that Hungarian police were working together with their Austrian colleagues on the case. Doskozil also thanked Hungarian police for cooperation.

Geza Fazekas, spokesman for Hungary’s Chief Prosecution, told MTI that the investigation is being treated as a priority with heightened monitoring by the regional prosecutor’s office. A decision on the detention of the suspects is expected by Saturday, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters