A murder investigation has been launched after the discovery of 39 dead bodies in a lorry container in Essex in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Early indications suggest 38 of the deceased are adults and one is a teenager.
A 25-year-old man from Northern
Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
A cordon has been put in place and access to and from the Waterglade Industrial Park, where the lorry container was found, remains closed.
Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said: “This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.“We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process.
“We believe the lorry is from Bulgaria and entered the country at Holyhead on Saturday 19 October and we are working closely with our partners to investigate.
“We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in
police custody as our enquiries continue. I appreciate this cordon is going to disrupt the activity of local businesses in the area and we will work to ensure that disruption is kept as short as possible. We are working with Thurrock Council to mitigate against any impact our investigation scene will have locally.”Shocked & saddened by this utterly tragic incident in Grays. Essex Police has arrested an individual and we must give them the space to conduct their investigations.— Priti Patel MP (@patel4witham) October 23, 2019Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: “Shocked & saddened by this utterly tragic incident in Grays. Essex Police has arrested an individual and we must give them the space to conduct their investigations.”
A restaurant worker in the industrial estate, who did not want to be named, said the area was cordoned off by police on Wednesday morning.
“There’s a lot of police and forensics,” the Big Blue Food Bus employee said.
“We’ve just seen what has been said online. It’s awful.
“We thought maybe someone had broken into a lorry, but it’s just awful.”
Glen Freeland, from GSF Car Parts which is close to where the bodies were found, said staff could not access the shop on Eastern Avenue on Wednesday morning.
“The manager went to get into work this morning and it was cordoned off and we’ve been moved to a different area,” Freeland said.
“All we know is they found the bodies in the back of a lorry.
“It was a bit of a shock but we’re not 100 per cent sure of what’s happened.”Related... Teenagers Stabbed To Death At House Party Were ‘Targeted By Masked Gatecrashers’ Thomas Haining, Father Who Shook Baby To Death, Sentenced To 8 Years In Jail