VIENNA (Reuters) – Three young children suffering from dehydration and close to death have been rescued from a van crammed with 26 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Austrian police said yesterday.
The two girls and a boy, aged five and six, were found in a dire state when police stopped the vehicle after a chase near the Austrian town of St Peter am Hart on the border with Germany, a police spokesman said. They are recovering in hospital.
“The emergency doctor told us they would not have made it much longer – two, maybe three hours,” said David Furtner, police spokesman for Upper Austria province.
The incident follows the discovery of the corpses of 71 refugees in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian highway on Thursday – victims of an unfolding tragedy as refugees and migrants escaping conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East flock to Europe in unprecedented numbers.
The International Organization for Migration estimates a third of a million people have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, leaving from Libya, Turkey and other countries to land in Europe.
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