DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Officials say 46 people were found dead in a tractor trailer in what may be one of the deadliest recent incidents of human smuggling along US-Mexico border.
At least 46 have been found dead inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in an apparent human smuggling attempt along the United States-Mexico border.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said 16 other people found in the trailer on Monday were transported to the hospital for heat stroke and exhaustion.
They included four minors.
The 16 were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, he said.
Police Chief William McManus said a city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6pm on Monday. Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said.
The vehicle was found next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city’s southern outskirts. McManus said three people were taken into custody following the incident.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard called the suffocation of the migrants in the truck the “tragedy in Texas” on Twitter and said the local consulate was en route to the scene, though the nationalities of the victims had not been confirmed.
Monday’s incident may be the deadliest tragedy among thousands who have died attempting to cross the US border from Mexico in recent decades.
Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio, while in 2003, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
Temperatures in the city, which is about 160 miles (250 km) from the Mexican border, swelled to a high of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) on Monday with high humidity.