SAN ANTONIO,TX : 9 die in immigrant-smuggling attempt in sweltering truck on July, Sunday 23th 2017

At least nine people died after being crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer found parked outside a Walmart in the midsummer Texas heat, authorities said Sunday in what they described as an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong.

The driver was arrested, and nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many with extreme dehydration and heatstroke, officials said.

"We're looking at a human-trafficking crime," Police Chief William McManus said. He called it "a horrific tragedy."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said Sunday the number of people killed was 10, but ICE later corrected the death toll to 9 people.

Authorities were called to the San Antonio parking lot late Saturday night or early Sunday and found eight dead inside the truck. A ninth victim died at the hospital, said Liz Johnson, spokeswoman for ICE.

A U.S. official later said that 17 people who were in the tractor-trailer are being treated for injuries that are considered life-threatening. The person also said that 13 others are being treated for injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

The victims "were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water," San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

It was just the latest smuggling-by-truck operation to end in tragedy. In one of the worst cases on record in the U.S., 19 immigrants locked inside a stifling rig died in Victoria, Texas, in 2003.

Based on initial interviews with survivors of the weekend tragedy, more than 100 people may have been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at some point in its journey, Homan said.

Thirty-nine were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination, officials said.

Some of the survivors told authorities they were from Mexico, Homan said.



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9 die in immigrant-smuggling attempt in sweltering truck