The wagon train with a container full of migrants was abandoned in the scorching sun on a country road in Veracruz, Mexico. People working at a nearby gas station heard knocking sounds and desperate cries for help, writes the Reuters news agency. – Those who were confined were about to suffocate and managed to break through the roof of the container. Because there was a gas station nearby, they were helped to get out, says the head of the civil defense in Oluta, Jose Dominguez. Migrants queuing to get a place in a container on a truck. The picture was taken in Querétaro in Mexico on November 11, 2018. Photo: ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP It happens only a month after 53 dead were found in an abandoned train in Texas in the USA. – Local residents heard the noise and helped to open the container, says eyewitness Carlos Enrique Escalante. Hiding from the police Reuters writes that people smugglers may have stowed as many as 400 people in the glowing container. Many of them are said to have run from the scene and hid in the forest for fear of being caught by the police and forcibly returned to their homeland. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guatemala, 89 of the migrants were from there, of which 55 were minors. A child in Nahualá in Guatemala shows a picture of 13-year-old Pascual Melvin Guachiac who was among the dead found in a container in Texas in June. Photo: SANDRA SEBASTIAN / Reuters There are also supposed to have been migrants from Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador trapped in the abandoned wagon train. Many of the migrants were treated for ankle and knee injuries after jumping from the roof of the container. – Most of them jumped down from the top of the container, says ambulance worker Cristobal Cisneros. Tragedy a month ago The abandoned wagon train on the side of the road this week brought back memories of a tragedy in San Antonia, Texas, a month ago. On 27 June, 53 dead migrants were found inside a container there. The wagon train with the many dead is the largest mass death ever in San Antonio. They were found in the hold of an abandoned wagon on the side of the road on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. In June, 53 migrants were found dead in a container train in Texas. Photo: KAYLEE GREENLEE BEAL / Reuters In addition to the many dead, 16 people were taken to hospital. We are talking about twelve adults and four children. They were exhausted and very hot, and several were unable to get out of the hold themselves. There was no water in the hold, the fire service says. Three people arrested The wagon train with the many dead is the largest mass death ever in San Antonio. The city’s police chief, William McManus, told the press. He stated that three people have been arrested and that the matter is being investigated on a national level by the FBI. Funeral ceremony in Veracruz, Mexico on July 15 after 53 dead were found in an abandoned wagon train in Texas on June 27. Photo: Felix Marquez / AP McManus said police received a call Monday night from a person who had been working nearby and heard cries for help from the train. He had found the hold partially open, with many lifeless bodies. – This is a terrible human tragedy. We hope that those responsible for these inhumane conditions are brought to justice, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a press conference at the scene. Not for the first time, San Antonio is about 250 kilometers from the border with Mexico and is an important transit route for people smugglers. There have been several cases, in a number of countries, where people smugglers transport refugees and migrants in cargo holds where there is not enough air, and where people suffocate. It is not the first time migrants have been found dead in this way near San Antonio. Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio. In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a burning truck southeast of San Antonio. A distraught mother in Nuhala, Guatemala after she lost her 13-year-old son who is among the dead found in an abandoned truck in Texas in June. Photo: Oliver de Ros / AP
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Confined in a container – managed to break out – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
