Investigators Find 71 Bodies Inside Truck Abandoned On Austrian Autobahn Three people have been arrested in Hungary over the incident.

Investigators Find 71 Bodies Inside Truck Abandoned On Austrian Autobahn

Three people have been arrested in Hungary over the incident.

Posted: 08/28/2015 02:53 AM EDT | Edited: 1 hour ago

VIENNA (AP) — Police arrested three people in Hungary overnight in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants found in a refrigerated truck abandoned on Austria's main highway, a police official said Friday.
The migrants likely suffocated, said Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in eastern Burgenland province. A Syrian travel document was found, indicating that at least some of the dead were refugees fleeing violence in Syria, though it wasn't clear if some were for elsewhere. The 71 included eight women and four children.
It was the latest tragedy in a year that has seen tens of thousands of people risking everything to seek a better life or refuge in wealthy European countries.

Credit: Ronald Zak/Associated Press Investigators search a truck on the shoulder of the A4 highway near Parndorf, Austria, on Aug. 27, 2015.

At least 2,500 have died, mostly at sea, where another tragedy was unfolding Friday as Libyan authorities counted bodies from two ships that capsized off the coast of that country. The U.N. refugee agency said 200 were missing and feared dead.
Migrants fearful of death at sea in overcrowded and flimsy boats have increasingly turned to using a land route to Europe through the Western Balkans. They start in Greece, which they can reach via a short boat trip from Turkey. But the discovery of the bodies in the truck showed there is no truly safe path.

ASSOCIATED PRESS People lit candles in front of the police station in Eisenstadt, Austria on Thursday after the bodies of 71 migrants were found in the back of an abandoned truck.

The refrigerated truck was found parked in the safety lane of the highway from Budapest, Hungary, to Vienna on Thursday. The death toll was initially estimated at 20 to 50. The bodies were partially decomposed and police had the truck towed to a refrigerated warehouse before they began a body count and tried to identify them. Autopsies were being conducted.
At least two of those arrested are Bulgarian citizens, while the third has Hungarian identity papers, police said.