Fifty-one people found dead in the back of a lorry were covered with steak seasoning, in what is believed to be an attempt to cover up their smell.
Smugglers were transporting the people, believed to be migrants across the Mexico-US border and it has been claimed some of them tried to escape the vehicle as a body was found on the street.
Alongside the horrific death toll, at least a dozen others were hospitalised after they were discovered in the abandoned tractor-trailer rig on Monday on a remote back road in Texas, US.
When officials got to the scene of the tragic incident they found “stacks of bodies” inside and another official added that whilst the van had a refrigeration system, it did not appear to be working.
The Texas Tribune was told that a number of the people inside appeared to have been sprinkled with the steak seasoning.
The tragedy in San Antonio was discovered by a person who worked at a nearby building just before 6pm on Monday, police chief William McManus said.
When police arrived at the scene they discovered a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partly opened gate to the trailer, he said.
Authorities confirmed 46 of those inside the trailer were initially dead, but a further five died in hospital.
Brexar County official, Nelson Wolff said that of the dead the vast majority were men and Mexico’s foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said that at least 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras.
The nationalities of at least 19 others who died had not been identified as of this morning.
Ebrard added: “We’re in mourning. A huge tragedy. Mexico will join investigations in the US”.
US President Joe Biden issued a statement promising to “do everything possible to stop” smugglers.
He said: “This incident underscores the need to go after the multibillion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”
Fire chief Charles Hood said that some of those inside were children and the people they rushed to hospital were hot to touch and no water or air conditioning was found in the trailer.
He added: “We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there. None of us come to work imagining that.”
Two Mexican nationals were charged in a US federal court in connection with the fatal smuggling attempt.
The horrific tragedy took place as temperatures in the region rocketed to near record levels.
A local couple, who came to the scene to pray, told the New York Times that the site was a well-known “drop-off spot” for migrants smuggled across the border.
Ruby Chavez added: “You can tell they just get here. We see them with backpacks or asking for food or money.”
The mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg said that 46 of those who had died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life. This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy.”
The deaths are a part of a tragic pattern that last year saw 650 people die as they tried to cross the Mexico-US border, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The community was the same that is still mourning the Uvalde shooting, the heartbreaking attack on a primary school that saw nineteen children and two adults killed.
