39 found dead in truck near London
Trailer arrived from Belgium; driver arrested
GR AYS • British police found the bodies of 39 people inside a truck at an industrial estate near London on Wednesday and said they had arrested the driver on suspicion of murder.
The discovery of the bodies — 38 adults and one teenager — was made in the early hours after emergency services were alerted to people in a truck container on an industrial site in Grays, about 32 kilometres east of central London.
Police said the trailer had arrived at nearby docks having travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium and the bodies were found just over an hour later.
The red cab unit of the truck was believed to have originated in Ireland. It had “Ireland” emblazoned on the windscreen along with the message “The Ultimate Dream.” The driver, a 25-yearold man from Northern Ireland, remained in custody.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was appalled by the news and was receiving regular updates about the investigation which was focused on human trafficking.
“We know that this trade is going on — all such traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice,” he said.
All those in the container were pronounced dead at the scene after the emergency services were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park, not far from docks on the River Thames.
Police said the trailer had travelled from Belgium to Purfleet and landed shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It left the port on the truck at about 1:05 a.m. and ambulance services notified police about the discovery of the bodies at 1:40 a.m.
Originally it was thought both parts of the vehicle had entered Britain at Holyhead in North Wales on Saturday and to have originally started its journey in Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said while the vehicle was registered in Bulgaria by a company owned by an Irish woman on June 19, 2017, it had left the next day and never returned.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Irish authorities would carry out any investigations necessary if it was established that the truck had passed through Ireland.
Police officers in forensic suits spent the day inspecting the large white container on the truck next to warehouses and had sealed off much of the surrounding area of the industrial site with large green barriers as they carried out their investigation.
“At this stage, we have not identified where the victims are from or their identities and we anticipate this could be a lengthy process,” Essex Police Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills told reporters.