Forty-six people were found dead Monday inside a truck trailer southwest of San Antonio, Texas, local authorities announced.
Another 16 people, 12 adults and four children, are receiving medical attention due to heat and dehydration, Fire Chief Charles Hood said.
The people who followed in the trailer would be part of an alleged attempt to smuggle migrants into the United States, Police Chief William McManu added that at least three people are in police custody, although it is not clear if they are linked to this case.
For now, the nationality of the victims is unknown. However, the Mexican consulate in San Antonio has already made itself available to provide support, “if there are Mexicans.”
According to the local press, quoted by the EFE agency, the area where the truck was found is a place where vehicles stop to unload migrants after illegally crossing the border.
Temperatures in San Antonio reached 40 degrees Celsius on Monday.
Authorities said they believed the The truck driver reportedly abandoned the vehicle with all the passengers inside a few minutes before police arrived at the scene.
This could already be the illegal crossing of migrants from Mexico to the United States with the highest number of fatalities in recent decades, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Ten migrants lost their lives in 2017 after becoming trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio.
Also in 2003, 19 migrants were found dead in a truck southwest of San Antonio.
Source: Observadora
