3 Killed, Several Injured after Van Carrying Migrants Tries to Evade Police in Austria

Image Source: DailyMail

Three people were killed and several others were injured in Austria on Saturday when a van carrying 20 people believed to be migrants overturned after evading a police check, authorities said.

Police in the eastern district of Burgenland, near Vienna, said officers tried to stop the white van at the border with Slovakia early Saturday, but the driver drove off at high speed. Shortly afterwards he lost control of the vehicle and it toppled into a ditch.

Two men and a woman were killed in the crash, and at least seven others were seriously injured. Police said four children were among the 20 migrants found inside the van's cargo section.

"The tragic death of three people today at the Kittsee/Jarovce border once again shows the brutality and lack of scruples of the smuggling mafias," Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in a statement.

In May, the Austrian Interior Ministry announced the dismantling of a network that had smuggled tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, mainly Syrians, from Hungary to Austria.

Source: QNA