It was two-thirty in the morning when John Kaley saw the first ambulances rush by. Then police cars. Then the fire department. "What's going on?" Kaley wondered. "Was someone killed?"
He works in a takeaway: an old double-decker bus parked in an industrial estate in Grays, east of London. Kaley serves burger here for seven pounds a piece and deep-fried chicken. His customers are mainly truck drivers who take a break in Grays.
Usually, Kaley says, the area is quiet. There is little traffic, except night owls and hungry drivers stopover no one over. But on the night of Wednesday, the area was suddenly teeming with police. Kaley was curious: he left his food truck and went to see where the cars were going. But the area was cordoned off. "I thought maybe truckers were arguing and one was killed," says Kaley.
It was not until the next morning that Kaley learned from the news what had actually happened. Just behind his food truck - where the police cordoned off the area - a truck was parked. His cargo: 39 dead people, including a teenager.
Little is known about the background: The authorities do not know who the dead were or where the truck went. Only that he turned around at 1:30 clock in the industrial area. Shortly thereafter, rescue workers were called to the place. From whom is not known.
However, British media unanimously reported that the dead should come from China. However, there was no confirmation from the police for this at first.
From Zeebrugge in Belgium to England
The area of Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, truckers say, is a popular place to stay. It is not far from the harbor, on a route to the north. According to initial findings, the container in which the people were trapped, originally from Zeebrugge in Belgium. On the night of Wednesday, he was transferred to the UK and picked up there by a driver at 1:05 local time.
This man - a 25-year-old from Northern Ireland - was arrested, he is under suspicion of murder. It is unclear whether he knew about his cargo or perhaps accidentally discovered it. But it is also possible that the driver was not aware of his load.
Video: 39 dead found in trucks
AP
The truck of the brand Scania carries a Bulgarian license plate. According to Bulgarian authorities, he was registered in 2017 in the port city of Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. According to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov left the vehicle a few days after registration and did not return.
The owner of the vehicle is therefore a company owned by a woman from Ireland. There are dozens of such companies in Bulgaria - starting out in the country is worth it because then the Bulgarian health and safety conditions apply to drivers and the insurance is much cheaper.
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39 bodies in trucks: horrible find in EssexA truck driver from Romania, who stops in Grays the evening after the body was found, says that often stowaways tried to smuggle himself into his vehicle.
For many migrants stranded on the Belgian or French coast, this is the only way to reach the UK - there is no legal route for them. Also on Wednesday, a truck was stopped in Kent County, which had migrants on board. The nine passengers were alive.
Smuggling is dangerous: the container containing the Grays' dead was refrigerated, according to media reports. In this case, the temperatures inside could have dropped to minus 25 degrees.
The authorities assume organized smuggling of people
"You have to be very desperate to get into such a car," Cook Kaley says in the evening after the find. The human rights organization Amnesty International speaks of a "heartbreaking and terrible incident".
The concern in Essex is great. Bouquets of flowers are placed next to the police cordon: white roses as a sign of mourning. Dozens of camera crews have come to the site. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter that he was "horrified". Other British politicians were shocked.
At the same time, there are demands to seek out the backers, who have hitherto been unknown, and to bring them to justice. The authorities assume that organized smuggling has taken place, and there have been several searches in Northern Ireland, the home country of the truck driver.
