U.K. police have launched a murder investigation into the discovery of 39 bodies found inside a truck container in Essex, England, according to Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills of theEssex Police.
On Wednesday morning, Mills said in a statement that authorities were notified of a number of people who had been found inside a truck’s container shortly before 1:40 a.m. at the Waterglade Industrial Park on Eastern Avenue in the town of Grays.
Emergency services were quickly deployed to the location where all of the 39 people were found dead. Initial indications show that one of the victims may be a teenager, but the rest are all likely to be adults.
Police believe that the truck is from Bulgaria and came into England throughHolyhead, Wales on Saturday.
Mills said in the statement that a murder investigation has been launched and the truck driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, was arrested on “suspicion of murder” and currently remains in police custody.
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“At this stage, we have not identified where the victims are from or their identities, and we anticipate that this could be a lengthy process,” Mills said.
After thanking the local community, Mills said she does not know how long the cordon will be in place at the site, but that the authorities are moving as fast as possible to end the road closures around the area.
“This is an absolute tragedy and very sad day for Essex Police and the local community,” she added. “We will continue to work alongside many other partner agencies to find out what led to these deaths.”
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Essex police said in their most recently updated statement that they have set up a casualty bureau where people can call if they are concerned about relatives following the incident.
The numbers are 0800-056-0944 for callers living in the U.K. or 0207-158-0010 for callers dialing from outside the U.K.
Anyone who has any information about this incident is asked to submit information to theU.K. Police Major Incident Public Reporting site.
source: people.com
