Fifth suspect arrested over migrant lorry deaths

Hungarian police detain men after bodies of 71 migrants found in a truck in Austria

Flowers and candles are left by the side of the  A4 motorway, in Nickelsdorf, Austria where an abandoned truck containing  71 dead migrants was found. Four men appeared in  Photograph: EPA
Flowers and candles are left by the side of the A4 motorway, in Nickelsdorf, Austria where an abandoned truck containing 71 dead migrants was found. Four men appeared in Photograph: EPA

A fifth man suspected of being involved in the deaths of 71 migrants found in a truck in Austria has been detained, Hungarian police said.

A police statement said the Bulgarian national was arrested on Saturday evening.

Hungarian police said they will seek to have him held in custody on suspicion of human trafficking.

On Saturday, a court in the central city of Kecskemet - from where prosecutors say the truck departed - placed four other suspects under preliminary arrest, pending possible indictment.

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Those four men, three Bulgarians and an Afghan, were arrested on Thursday in southern Hungary.

A prosecution spokesman told journalists on Saturday that the four men faced human trafficking charges involving torture and targeting financial gain.

"The truck left from Kecskemet, picked up the migrants near the southern border [with Serbia], then ferried them through Hungary to Austria," prosecution spokesman Gabor Schmidt told journalists.

If convicted, the four face prison terms ranging from two- to 16-years each.

The four suspects are not being charged with manslaughter in Hungary because they will face that charge in Austria, he said.

Austrian highway

The truck was found parked along the Budapest to Vienna highway on Thursday.

Austrian experts are performing autopsies on the victims. The bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children were recovered from the truck.

PA and Reuters