SOFIA -- Seven people have been arrested in Bulgaria a day after the bodies of 18 Afghan migrants were found in an abandoned truck near the village of Lokorsko outside capital, Sofia, authorities said on February 18.
Atanas Ilkov, director of the Main Directorate of the National Police, said three people were arrested on February 17 in the Sofia area, while the owner of the truck was also detained in Burgas on the same day.
Three additional people were later detained in Burgas, Kableshkovo, and Karnobat, Bulgarian media reported, citing sources.
Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov told a news briefing on February 18 that this was "another transport of migrants" carried out by an organized crime group.
He added that the crime group had been making at least two such transports a month, but this time "out of purely human greed" they loaded too many people into the truck.
"In previous cases, between 25 and 35 were loaded. For this truck, 52 people was too many," he prosecutor said, citing a joint investigation by the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor’s Office.
The Interior Ministry had said the truck was carrying about 52 migrants and that survivors -- some in extremely bad condition -- had been taken to three hospitals in Sofia for emergency treatment.
"They have suffered from a lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, they are freezing, and obviously haven't eaten for days," Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said.
A Bulgarian citizen told BTV he had happened to be passing by the truck and the migrants outside the vehicle asked him for help.
The truck was abandoned along a highway near Sofia, and the driver fled, according to the Interior Ministry. The people may have been hidden in a shelter built under a load of timber, state news agency BTA reported.
SEE ALSO: 'Everyone Is Anxious': Pakistan's Mass Arrests Of Afghan Refugees Fuel Fear Of New CrackdownPolice received the first report about the truck around 2:15 p.m. Authorities are working to determine the exact cause of death for the 18 people and the route the truck took. They estimated that the truck had been abandoned for 24 hours.
The Prosecutor-General's Office announced that a nationwide investigation has been launched, and deputy chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov had arrived on the scene along with Sofia prosecutor Iliana Kirilova.
Authorities said the Afghan migrants likely were traveling from Turkey on their way to Western Europe.
The reports come after EU leaders agreed to measures including initiatives to strengthen the defense infrastructure along the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, including the use of cameras and observation towers, dpa reported.
Leaders of member states met in Brussels on February 16 to discuss actions to deal with the growing number of migrants arriving illegally. About 330,000 border crossing cases were registered last year.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer recently visited the Bulgarian-Turkish border, where he said 2 billion euros were needed to expand the fence along the EU external border to reduce migration pressure to Europe. Failure to deal with migration was cited by Vienna as an obstacle to the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen passport-free travel zone.