No fewer than 18 immigrants including a child have been found dead in an abandoned truck in Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian health minister, Asen Medzhidiev, who made this known said the parked vehicle appeared to have been illegally transporting about 40 migrants.
Medzhidiev revealed that the survivors have been conveyed to a hospital for treatment, adding that the people in the truck were cold, wet, and famished.
According to BBC, the incident is believed to be the deadliest involving migrants in the Southeast European country.
Bulgaria has long struggled to deal with large numbers of people trying to enter the European Union (EU) from Turkey.
The truck, found near the village of Lokorsko, 12 miles (20km) north-east of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia – was illicitly transporting the migrants hidden under some wood, the interior ministry said.
Medzhidiev said, “There has been a lack of oxygen to those who were locked in this truck. They were freezing, wet, they have not eaten for several days.”
Fourteen people found alive in the truck, including eight in serious condition, were taken to hospital, he added, while another 10 people were found hiding nearby and would be taken to hospital for examination.
Police are searching for the human traffickers believed to have driven the truck and fled, officials said.
Bulgaria has faced allegations that it abuses people attempting to enter from Turkey, with asylum seekers saying they have been blocked, arrested, stripped and beaten.