Afghans lucky to be alive

TWENTY- FOUR young people have been rescued in Austria from a van in which the door was welded shut and they were slowly suffocating.

The Afghani refugees were saved in the nick of time from the Hungarian- registered lorry.

The driver fled the scene but was later arrested.

Grates on the windows meant no air at all could reach the desperate people inside who, police say, could have been dead within two hours had they not saved them from a cargo area measuring just 11ft long, 6ft wide and 6ft high.

“It represented an acute danger to life,” said a spokesman.

Last week 71 refugees were found dead in a truck in Austria when the driver abandoned his lorry, which had left Hungary bound for Germany.

Three people, part of a BulgarianHungarian people smuggling ring, are now under arrest for their illegal transportation and murder.