Eight face charges over Austria migrant truck deaths

Budapest : Hungarian police said Wednesday they will seek charges against eight suspects after wrapping up a probe into the deaths of 71 migrants found in an abandoned truck in Austria last year, in a gruesome case that sent shockwaves through Europe.

"The investigation has been completed... Police will recommend to prosecutors that they presscharges against eight suspects," said Zoltan Boross, head of the police anti-migrant trafficking unit.

In total, seven Bulgarians and an Afghan -- considered the ringleader -- have been remanded in custody over the tragedy.

Four are accused of manslaughter, while another four could face charges of organised human trafficking, Boross told journalists in Budapest.

A further three suspects remain at large.

The badly decomposing bodies of the 71 people were found inside a refrigerated poultry truck left in a layby in Burgenland state, close to the Hungarian border, on August 27 2015.

The stench of human decay emanated from the container where bodies lay piled on top of each other, crammed into a small rectangular space. 

Among them was a baby girl, not even a year old.

Budapest took over the case in November because the 59 men, eight women and four children were thought to have suffocated while the lorry was still in Hungary.