39 bodies found in tractor-trailer in England
LONDON — British police launched one of the country’s biggest ever murder investigations on Wednesday after 39 bodies were found inside a tractor-trailer on an industrial estate in southeast England.
Essex Police said the driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The bodies — 38 adults and one teenager — were found at Waterglade Industrial Park in the Essex town of Grays, about 25 miles east of central London. Police have not yet offered an account of what might have happened, but the scene bore the markings of human trafficking.
Essex Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills said police had not yet identified the victims or where they are from, adding it could be a “lengthy process.”
Essex police said they believed the truck traveled from Zeebrugge, a Belgian port, to Purfleet, a small town in Essex on the River Thames, docking shortly after 12:30 a.m. At around 1:05 a.m. on Wednesday, the truck left Purfleet, police said. Thirtyfive minutes later, police received a call from local ambulance services saying they discovered the container. It was unclear how the ambulance services had been tipped off.
“We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our inquiries continue,” Essex Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said in the statement. “This is a tragic incident. Our inquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.”
Police on Wednesday did not identify the driver by name, though several British media outlets named him, citing sources in Northern Ireland, and posted photos from what were said to be his social media accounts.
The truck was registered in Varna, Bulgaria — a port city on the Black Sea coast — to a company owned by an Irish citizen, according to a statement by the Bulgarian foreign ministry.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told a local television broadcaster that the truck left immediately after it was registered in 2017 and hadn’t returned. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “appalled by this tragic incident in Essex.”