Sofia Confirms Arrest of 3 Bulgarians in Hungary over Migrant Truck Deaths

Photo EPA/BGNES

The Foreign Ministry in Sofia confirmed on Friday that three Bulgarian citizens have been arrested in Hungary in connection with the grim discovery in a truck in Austria, in which the dead bodies of dozens of migrants were found.

The truck carrying Hungarian number plates was found abandoned on a motorway in Austria near the borders with Hungary and Slovakia, Austrian police has said.

The Bulgarian embassy in Budapest is in constant touch with the Hungarian authorities, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"More details will be announced after the completion of the investigation", it said.

Police in Hungary's capital Budapest said earlier on Friday that it has arrested four people on suspicion of people-smuggling after Austrian police found the bodies of 71 men, women and children in a refrigerator truck abandoned along the motorway linking Budapest to Vienna. The people appear to have suffocated inside the truck while en route from Hungary into Austria.

Three of those detained were Bulgarian citizens while the fourth one was an Afghan national carrying a Hungarian identity card, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI.

Continue reading on: