British
police said the 39 people who were found dead inside a truck in an industrial
park in the United Kingdom on Wednesday were Chinese citizens.
"Since
then we have confirmed that eight of the dead are women and 31 are men and all
are believed to be Chinese citizens", Essex police wrote in a statement.
The
cause of death has not yet been established, the police added, since “they must
undergo a complete forensic process… before attempting to identify each
individual in the trailer. This will be a substantial operation and, at this
time, we cannot estimate how long these procedures will take”.
On
Wednesday, 25-year-old truck driver from Northern Ireland Morris Robinson was
arrested on suspicion of murder after a truck, originally from Northern
Ireland, and a container with the victims were found in an industrial park in
Grays, Essex, a City 32 kilometers east of London.
CNN
witnessed how Northern Ireland forces registered two properties in Armagh
County, southwest of Belfast.
Local
residents identified one of the properties as the home of Robinson's parents.
As the
horrific series of events developed, members of Parliament speculated in the
House of Commons that the incident was related to human trafficking, a claim
still to be confirmed by the police.
Police
in England, Northern Ireland and now Belgium struggled overnight to establish
the chain of events that led to the deaths.
CNN
witnessed how Northern Ireland forces registered two properties in Armagh
County, southwest of Belfast. Local residents identified one of the properties
as the home of Robinson's parents.
They
also told CNN that Robinson's parents have traveled to England to support him. Essex
police said Wednesday that the container arrived in a nearby city, on the River
Thames, after traveling from the Belgian port city of Zeebrugge. It was then
transported by a red Scania truck to the Waterglade Industrial Park.
Belgian
officials said Thursday that an investigation focused on "organizers and
all other parties involved in this transport", adding that the container
arrived in Zeebrugge on Tuesday afternoon at 2.49 p.m. CEST and left the port
the same day.
The
container arrived in Purfleet, a city on the River Thames, early Wednesday, the
Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
"It
is still unclear when the victims were placed in the container and if this
happened in Belgium", he said.
The
truck was found on a street in the heart of the usually occupied industrial
zone. The police, who were called to the scene around 1:40 a.m. On Wednesday,
he said the victims were found dead at the scene.
Road
transport experts said the truck appeared to be refrigerated. That could mean
freezing temperatures between -5 and -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 ° C to -23 °
C), Richard Burnett, executive director of the trade agency, the Transportation
Association of, told the Pennsylvania news agency Roads, making conditions
"absolutely horrendous" for anyone inside.
"I
can't overstate how great the tragedy is that 39 people felt they had no better
option than to get on the back of this truck and obviously ended up in an
absolute tragedy", said Matthew Carter, emergency communications delegate for
the British Red Cross He told CNN on the scene Wednesday.
He added
that the charity was also providing support to the forensic team, offering them
"a place where they can come and reflect, talk".
"It's
not something that (emergency services) deals with every day", Carter told
CNN. "A guy told a colleague of mine that it's the hardest thing he's faced
in (his) 30-year career".
The
truck was later transferred, as CNN saw it, to a "safe place" in Tilbury
Docks, about 20 minutes by car from Grays, to "maintain the dignity of
those who lost their lives".
SOURCE: CNN
