Corpses of migrants found in a truck in Austria

Dead bodies of as many as 50 migrants have been found in an abandoned refrigerated truck parked in Austria near the Hungarian border on Thursday. According to Austrian police, the migrants were already dead when truck crossed across the border into Austria.

The truck bore the branding of Hyza, a Slovakian poultry company. But the company has claimed that the vehicle does not belong to it any longer and that the new owner perhaps did not bother to remove the branding. The vehicle with Hungarian license plate was found parked off the A4 motorway, according to Burgenland police chief Hans Peter Doskozil.

"One can maybe assume that the deaths occurred one-and-a-half to two days ago," Doskozil told a news conference on Thursday. The bodies cramped inside the truck had already started decomposing when they were found. The police said the exact number of bodies and how many of them are women and children would not be known until Friday morning, which could be between 20 and 50. Although, they suspect that those who are responsible for it have already left the country.

The terrible discovery came at a time when Vienna, the Austrian capital, is preparing for a summit on the issue of migration.

Hungarian cameras have identified the truck, making its way on the Hungarian side of the border. Doskozil said that the truck was spotted at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday and it was discovered by the Austrian police at 6 a.m. on Thursday, which indicates that the truck must have driven across the border during the intervening time.

The truck has been taken for forensic investigation and the police will divulge further information on the find at 11 a.m. local time on Friday. Hungarian police is working with the Austrian police and they have been informed that the driver of the truck was a Romanian.

Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann said that it is a glaring truth that pointed at "how necessary it is to save lives by combating criminals and people traffickers."

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