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| 39 Found Dead in Truck in U.K. | 39 Found Dead in Truck in U.K. |
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| LONDON — The police in eastern England have opened a murder investigation after the bodies of 39 people were found in a truck in an industrial park in the early hours of Wednesday. | LONDON — The police in eastern England have opened a murder investigation after the bodies of 39 people were found in a truck in an industrial park in the early hours of Wednesday. |
| The bodies were discovered in a vehicle at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, in the county of Essex, around 25 miles east of London on the River Thames, the Essex Police said in a statement. | |
| “This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives,” Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner of the Essex Police said. “Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.” | “This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives,” Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner of the Essex Police said. “Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.” |
| The emergency services were called to the site shortly before 1:40 a.m., but all 39 people were pronounced dead at the scene. | The emergency services were called to the site shortly before 1:40 a.m., but all 39 people were pronounced dead at the scene. |
| The driver, a 25-year-old-man from Northern Ireland, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. According to the police, it appeared that all but one of the dead, a teenager, were adults, but determining the victims’ identities will be a lengthy process. | |
| The police believe the truck, which is from Bulgaria, entered Britain at Holyhead port in Wales on Saturday, more than 300 miles northwest of where it was discovered on Wednesday. | The police believe the truck, which is from Bulgaria, entered Britain at Holyhead port in Wales on Saturday, more than 300 miles northwest of where it was discovered on Wednesday. |
| Vehicles entering Holyhead typically come from Ireland, but what route the truck took remains unclear, as do the nationalities of those inside. | |
| “We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our enquiries continue,” Mr. Mariner said. | “We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our enquiries continue,” Mr. Mariner said. |
| The police also searched properties in Grays, and in Worthing, in West Sussex on England’s south coast, seizing around 100,000 pounds in cash — about $130,000. | |
| While the circumstances that led to the deaths remained unclear, there have been a string of tragedies involving migrants and laborers being smuggled across Europe in trucks. In 2015, the decomposing bodies of 71 migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan were discovered in a truck abandoned on the side of an Austrian highway; four men were later convicted and imprisoned for the deaths. | |
| There has been a series of similar incidents in Austria, and in 2000, 58 Chinese migrants were found suffocated in a truck in Dover, in southeastern England after crossing from mainland Europe. The driver of that truck, who was Dutch, was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison for manslaughter and conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants. | |
| As details of the grisly discovery in Essex were still emerging, the news of the discovery of dozens of bodies drew outrage and horror from many in Britain, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson. | |
| Jackie Doyle-Price, a Conservative member of Parliament who represents the constituency where the truck was discovered, called the news “sickening.” | |
| The industrial park is a short drive from the Dartford Crossing, where London’s orbital motorway passes under and over the Thames. A local resident, Paige Wade, described to Sky News seeing police tape cordoning off the entrance to the industrial park as she drove home from work at around 4:15 a.m. | |
| “I knew it was serious because of how many police cars and ambulances were there, but the police had parked their cars across the whole access of the road so you couldn’t see anything,” she said. “There’s always lorries around there as they park up there for the night.” | |
| Britain has long been a destination for migrants, and smugglers have often used the crossings over the English Channel to traffic people into the country. Just days before the discovery, five people were arrested, including four men in Britain, after 13 migrants including a child were discovered in a cattle truck in the French port of Calais, en route to Britain. | |
| British and French authorities have stepped up security at the Calais crossing in the years since the 2015 migrant crisis that saw hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants make their way into Europe by crossing the Mediterranean or overland. Many desperately turned to smugglers to facilitate their journey. |