On the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, an abandoned truck containing 46 bodies has been discovered.
16 individuals, including four children, had also been evacuated to the hospital, according to a fire spokesman.
The survivors had heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and they were “hot to the touch.”
San Antonio, Texas, is a key transit hub for people traffickers and is located 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the US-Mexico border.
Once they have managed to enter the United States, unauthorized migrants are frequently met by human traffickers in isolated locations and transported using trucks.
They have families and probably sought a better life, according to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
It’s a dreadful human tragedy, to put it mildly.
They have families and probably sought a better life, according to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
It’s a dreadful human tragedy, to put it mildly.
According to San Antonio fire director Charles Hood, first responders responded to reports of a dead person in the area at around 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT).
“We’re not meant to enter a vehicle and find piles of dead people inside. None of us arrive at work with that in our minds, he remarked.
He continued by saying that the car’s driver had abandoned it and that it was without water and without a working air conditioner.
As the summertime temperature in San Antonio reached 39.4C (103F) on Monday, it is thought that the victims most likely passed away from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
According to Marcelo Ebrard, the foreign minister of Mexico, two Guatemalans were among those evacuated to the hospital.
It was not immediately known what countries the other victims were from.
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Federal officials have taken over the probe while three people are being kept in jail.
The Mexican consulate in San Antonio said it would offer “all the help” if any Mexican citizens were among the fatalities. Mexican Consul General Rubén Minutti has been sent to the incident.
A few yards away, at a lumber yard, security guard Edward Reyna claimed he was not shocked to hear the news when he arrived for his night job.
He claimed to have lost count of the number of times he had witnessed migrants leaping off trains as they passed by the location of the truck.
In San Antonio, this tale has already taken place, but not to this extent.
On the south side of the city, beside a Walmart, a similar tractor trailer containing 10 deceased immigrants was discovered in 2017.
Two major highways run down the extreme south side of San Antonio and connect the city to border communities in Texas.
