Victims found dead in truck in UK were Chinese

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Police move the lorry container where bodies were discovered, in Grays, Essex, Britain. — Reuters photo

LONDON: The 39 people found dead in the back of a truck near London were Chinese, ITV News reported, as police questioned the driver of the vehicle who was detained on suspicion of murder.

Paramedics and police found the bodies of 38 adults and one teenager in a truck container on an industrial estate at Grays, 20 miles east of the British capital.

Police have not yet identified the victims but ITV reported that they were all Chinese. Essex Police said they could not confirm the report and there was no immediate comment from the Chinese foreign ministry or from China’s London embassy.

Detectives were continuing to question the truck driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland. A source familiar with the investigation said he was Mo Robinson from Portadown in the British province and the BBC reported that police had raided two houses in Northern Ireland as part of the investigation.

For years, illegal immigrants have attempted to reach Britain stowed away in the back of trucks, often seeking to reach the United Kingdom from the European mainland.

In the latest incident, the container arrived at Purfleet docks in Essex, southern England, having also travelled from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

The red cab unit was believed to have come from Ireland. It had ‘Ireland’ emblazoned on the windscreen along with the message ‘The Ultimate Dream’.

The grim discovery of the bodies was made at 1.40am just over an hour after the container arrived in Britain

“It is hard to put ourselves in the shoes of those emergency services… as they were asked to open that container and to expose the appalling crime that had taken place,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The vehicle has been moved to a secure site at nearby Tilbury Docks where the bodies can be recovered and further forensic work undertaken to begin what police said would be the lengthy process of identifying the victims.

The National Crime Agency said it was assisting the investigation and working to “urgently identify and take action against any organised crime groups who have played a role in causing these deaths.”  — Reuters