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The accident vehicle at the Kittsee border crossing
Photo: Thomas Lenger;
Monthly review / dpa
Three people were killed in an accident involving an overcrowded vehicle in Burgenland, Austria.
As the police announced, the van overturned while trying to flee from a police checkpoint at the Austrian-Slovakian border crossing in Kittsee.
Two men and one woman were killed and seven others were seriously injured.
According to the information, the vehicle is that of a suspected smuggler.
The man was arrested, said a police spokesman for the AFP news agency.
Accordingly, the suspect had crammed a total of 20 people into his van, including four children.
Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) said about the accident: "The tragic death of three people today at the Kittsee-Jarovce border crossing shows once again the brutality and unscrupulousness of the smuggler mafia." People were lured with completely false promises and risked their lives.
Resolute action against this form of organized crime is "more topical and important than ever".
In May, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior reported the dismantling of a smuggling ring.
He is said to have smuggled tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Hungary to Austria.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, almost 330 people smugglers have already been arrested this year, 80 more than in the same period last year.
dam/AFP
