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Austria Police Move Up To 50 Decomposing Bodies

Austrian investigators have begun to remove dozens of bodies of refugees from an abandoned refrigerated lorry found on a motorway near the Hungarian border.

Police are expected to confirm later today exactly how many victims there are, after the Interior Ministry said there were between 20 and 50 corpses.

The abandoned lorry was found on Thursday by an Austrian highway patrol which had spotted the vehicle on the hard shoulder of the A4 highway, close to Parndorf.

The spot is about 50 km (28 miles) southeast of the capital Vienna and about 25km (16 miles) from the Hungarian and Slovak borders.

It is thought the people were trapped in the trailer and suffocated after being unable to get out but police said it was too early to confirm the cause of death.

The van had been seen stationary by staff at a nearby service station and when it failed to move for some time, they called the police.

When the police arrived they found the back door slightly ajar and inside were the partially decomposed remains of the migrants.

"When they checked they found it had no driver and blood was dripping out of the vehicle and there was a smell of dead bodies," Helmut Marban, press officer for Burgenland police, said.

At a press conference in Eisenstadt, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said it demonstrated "the despicable methods used by Mafia traffickers in all their ugliness in Austria".

"Today is a dark day," she said vowing there would be zero tolerance shown towards any that were caught.

Police suspect those responsible have already fled the country and believe the lorry was in Hungary until Wednesday.

They said the truck had Hungarian licence plates and the logo of a Slovakian meat product company on the side.

The company told the Krone newspaper it had sold 13 vehicles in 2014.

A spokesman said he understood that the buyer had then resold at least one of them on in Hungary.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the discovery had shaken European leaders discussing the migrant crisis at a Balkans summit.

She said: "We are of course all shaken by the appalling news. This reminds us that we must tackle quickly the issue of immigration and in a European spirit - that means in a spirit of solidarity - and find solutions."

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she hoped the tragedy would push member states to "take decisions and responsibility".

European Commissioner Johannes Hahn reiterated that Brussels would propose within weeks a fresh look at the situation, with a view to sharing responsibility between countries.

"We will have another go at quotas. I hope that in the light of the most recent developments now there is a readiness among all the 28 (EU member states) to agree on this," he said.