39 found dead in UK lorry were Chinese

London, October 24 

The 39 people found dead in a refrigerated container in the UK were Chinese nationals, British police announced on Thursday as they continued to question the Northern Irish truck driver on suspicion of murdering the eight women and 31 men.

Officers in Northern Ireland have also raided three properties and the National Crime Agency said it was working to identify “organised crime groups that may have played a part”.

The police are continuing to question lorry driver Mo Robinson, 25, on suspicion of murdering the eight women and 31 men, the BBC reported. The trailer arrived in Purfleet on the Thames river from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Ambulance staff discovered the bodies in the container at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays in Essex, a town 32 km east of London, on Wednesday early morning.

The police said the tractor unit—the front part of the lorry—came from Northern Ireland and picked up the trailer from Purfleet. “It is not yet clear when the victims were placed in the container and whether this happened in Belgium,” the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. The lorry was moved to a secure site at Tilbury Docks on Wednesday so the bodies could be “recovered while preserving the dignity of the victims”.

Essex Police said formal identification of the 39 bodies “could be a lengthy process”.

Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said temperatures in refrigerated trailers could be as low as -25C. He described conditions for anyone inside as “absolutely horrendous”. — PTI