Two dead after 15 migrants found locked in train car for hours: Texas
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The US Border Patrol stopped the train east of Knippa, a tiny town in southern Texas close to San Antonio, police reported.
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Migrants are being rescued after a truck headed for the US border was found abandoned in Mexico in 2022. (AFP)
A train carrying a group of migrants who were "suffocating" was stopped on Friday as a result of an anonymous emergency call, according to Texas police. Two of the migrants on the train were found dead.
According to police, the US Border Patrol stopped the train east of Knippa, a tiny town in southern Texas close to San Antonio.
"Approximately 15 migrants were discovered to be in need of immediate medical attention, five of the immigrants were flown out to San Antonio area hospitals, five were transported to area hospitals, and their conditions are unknown," the statement by the Uvalde Police Department said.
"Two of the immigrants were pronounced deceased," police reported
Police said that Union Pacific, a freight-hauling railroad company, "will lead the investigation."
Temperatures close to where the train was stopped hit 30 degrees Celsius in the late afternoon, as per local media outlets.
US Department of Homeland Security investigators said they were looking into the potential for a human smuggling scenario, Reuters reported. The tragic scenario that occurred on Friday is similar to one that occurred in June near San Antonio, when over 50 migrants died after becoming trapped inside a tractor-trailer without air conditioning or water. When the victims in the June tragedy were found, officials reported that the temperature was around 39 degrees.
In 2017, a similar migrant tragedy also occurred in San Antonio, when ten people died while traveling into the United States in a sweltering trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes.
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