3 arrested as number of dead migrants in Austria truck climbs to 71

71 presumed migrants were found dead in a truck outside Vienna

(Image credit: Dieter Nagl/AFP/Getty Images)

published 28 August 2015

On Friday, Austrian police raised the number of dead bodies found Thursday inside a refrigerated truck outside Vienna to 71, including eight women, three children, and one infant. At least some of the dead were migrants from Syria, and all of them likely suffocated to death, said Hans Peter Doskozil, the police chief in Austria's eastern Burgenland province. Hungarian police detained seven suspects overnight, he added, and arrested three of them: two Bulgarians and one suspect with Hungarian identity papers.

The grisly discovery was made as European Union leaders were meeting in Vienna to discuss the largest wave of migration in Europe since World War II. The summit concluded without any decisions and amid protestations from Serbia and Macedonia that other EU countries aren't doing enough to help the influx of migrants who have started entering Europe through the Balkans.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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