This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
Published on October 24, 2019, British police have confirmed that the 39 people found dead in a truck container near London on Wednesday are of Chinese nationality.
The deceased include 31 men and eight women, according to paramedics and police handling the matter.
The truck driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, has been detained on suspicion of murder, Reuters reports.
The truck, which was heading to Essex in London, has been moved to a secure site at nearby Tilbury Docks for forensic work to establish what killed the victims.
The 25-year-old driver had driven the lorry from Bulgaria and entered the country through Holyhead on Saturday.
Illegal immigrants have attempted to reach Britain stowed away in the back of trucks for years, often seeking to reach the United Kingdom from the European mainland.
Britain's biggest illegal immigrant tragedy was reported in 2000, when 58 Chinese nationals were found dead in a tomato truck at the southern port of Dover.
