'Human Tragedy' - 46 bodies found in truck in Texas, US
Created: 06/28/2022, 07:18
The bodies of 46 people were discovered in a truck in the US state of Texas.
16 people, including children, were rescued alive.
San Antonio - "It's tragic," said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, local broadcaster KSAT reports.
"They had families... and were probably trying to find a better life.
It is nothing short of a terrible human tragedy.”
The bodies of 46 people have been found in a truck in the greater San Antonio, Texas area.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood confirmed the preliminary number of victims on Monday evening (local time).
According to this, 16 survivors were taken to hospitals, twelve adults and four children.
Terrible find in Texas: survivors recovered from parked truck
The survivors were conscious when they were taken to hospitals, Fire Chief Hood said.
"The patients we saw were hot, they suffered from heat stroke." According to the national weather service, the maximum temperature in San Antonio on Monday was around 38 degrees.
Hood said there was no water in the trailer.
It was indeed a refrigerated truck;
however, no cooling system was running.
Police cordon off the scene where a trailer truck with multiple bodies was discovered in San Antonio.
© Eric Gay/dpa
San Antonio (USA): Migrants hidden in the truck
Authorities announced three arrests.
The truck was found near Interstate 35, which leads to the border with Mexico.
Migrants hidden in trucks are repeatedly smuggled into the United States from Mexico.
It is about 250 kilometers from San Antonio to the border with the neighboring country.
In 2017, ten dead migrants were also discovered in a trailer in the city, and dozens of people had to be hospitalized.
Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke on Monday of a "tragedy" with regard to the 46 dead.
He announced that the Mexican consul would go to the scene of the accident, even if the nationality of the victims was not yet known.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, blamed President Joe Biden's migration policy for the deaths of 46 migrants.
"These deaths are Biden's fault," Abbott said on Twitter.
They are "the result of his deadly open borders policy," Abbott said.
Not enforcing the law has "deadly consequences".
The opposition Republicans accuse Biden of taking too lax a course in migration policy and in securing the southern border.
They also want to use this topic in their campaign for the midterm congressional elections in November.
(afp/ml)
The discovery of 39 bodies in a refrigerated container near London made headlines in 2020.
