Texas Tragedy: 46 Found Dead Inside Tractor Trailer In San Antonio, 16 Hospitalised

Three people were taken into custody for human trafficking, but it was unclear if they were absolutely connected to it.

In this aerial view, members of law enforcement investigate a tractor trailer on June 27, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. According to reports, at least 46 people, who are believed migrant workers from Mexico, were found dead in an abandoned tractor trailer. Over a dozen victims were found alive, suffering from heat stroke and taken to local hospitals.

Source : Getty

New Delhi: In one of the most deadly recent incidents of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border, a tractor-trailer containing 46 dead bodies was discovered near railroad tracks in San Antonio, Texas on Monday, said officials, according to news agency Associated Press (AP). Sixteen other people found inside the trailer were rushed to hospitals for heat stroke and exhaustion including four minors. Fire Chief Charles Hood said,  that the patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer.

According to the AP report, at around 6 pm on Monday, a city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help, Police Chief William McManus said. The police reached the spot and found a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer.

Three people were taken into custody for human trafficking, but it was unclear if they were absolutely connected to it, McManus said. 

McManus added that those in the trailer were part of a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the United States, and the investigation was being led by the US Homeland Security Investigations, according to the AP report.

It is presumed that those in the trailer were migrants, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press.

According to the report, this may be the deadliest incident of migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border. In 2017, 10 were found dead after they were trapped inside a truck in a Walmart parking lot. Similarly, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio in 2003. 

While there has been no indication as to what may have caused the deaths, temperatures in San Antonio, which is about 160 miles (250 km) from the Mexican border, hit a high of 103F (39.4C) on Monday with high humidity, reported Sky News.

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico said that a consul is on its way to the neighbourhood, adding that the nationalities of the deceased are unknown.

"Tragedy in Texas. Reportedly suffocated in trailer box," he wrote on Twitter.

According to AP, these big rigs emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid surge in US border enforcement in San Diego, El Paso and Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings. But after the 2001 terror attacks, the crossing became exponentially more difficult, so migrants were led through more dangerous terrain and paid thousands of dollars more.

Before that, people paid small fees to mom-and-pop operators to get them across a largely unguarded border.