The vehicle is said to have illegally transported around 40 migrants hidden under a load of timber.
Tomi Pyy,
Riikka Kajander
Eighteen migrants have been found dead in an abandoned truck in Bulgaria, the country’s interior ministry said on Friday. The migrants are suspected to have died from lack of oxygen. The news agencies AFP, AP and Reuters report on the matter.
The vehicle is said to have illegally transported around 40 migrants hidden under a load of timber. The abandoned truck was located near the village of Lokorsko, 20 kilometers northeast of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. According to the authorities, the migrants had been in the car for at least a day.
The authorities have not disclosed the nationalities of the migrants in the truck, but according to Bulgarian media, the migrants are all from Afghanistan.
Some of the migrants are still alive and have been hospitalized. Bulgarian Minister of Health Assen Medzhidiev according to the majority of survivors are in very poor condition.
– They have suffered from a lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, they are freezing, and apparently they haven’t eaten for days, Medzhidiev said.
Director of investigations Borislav Sarafov three people have been arrested in connection with the incident.