Austria police find up to 50 Migrants dead in truck

VIENNA: Austrian police found the decomposing bodies of up to 50 migrants in an abandoned truck near the Austrian border with Hungary.

Austrian police said the vehicle found Thursday abandoned in the emergency lane of a motorway had “decomposing body fluids” dropping from it.

The people in the truck were thought to be among the migrants on their way through Central Europe and toward the wealthier countries — particularly Germany — in the north.

The truck with Hungarian license plates was found near the Austrian village of Parndorf, the site of a popular outlet shopping mall about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Hungarian border. It had been left by the side of the highway for more than 24 hours, Austrian police said. Late Thursday they said they couldn’t yet determine the migrants’ cause of death, adding that preliminary inspection suggested the people suffocated or died of thirst.

Austria’s police said they were in contact with their counterparts in Hungary regarding ownership of the truck, which appeared to be a refrigerator vehicle previously used to transport chickens.

European Union officials have been struggling for ways to control the tens of thousands of migrants who are now reaching the continent, without forfeiting the free movement between member countries that is a fundamental part of life in the 28-nation bloc.

Now its members are confronting human traffickers who are exploiting the open borders.