Irish police arrest man over UK truck deaths

LONDON: Irish police said on Saturday they had arrested a man in his 20s from Northern Ireland on suspicion of involvement in the deaths of 39 people found in the back of a truck near London on Wednesday.

Irish state broadcaster RTE said the man was arrested at Dublin’s port on Saturday morning after arriving on a ferry from France, and that police wanted to question him about the movements of the container in which the bodies were found.

British police have already arrested four people in connection with the incident.

‘Majority from Vietnam’

The majority of the 39 people found dead in the back of a truck are likely from Vietnam, a community leader from the rural, rice-growing community where many of the victims are believed to have come from had told Reuters.

The discovery of the bodies – 38 adults and one teenager – was made on Wednesday after emergency services were alerted to people in a truck container on an industrial site in Grays, about 32km (20 miles) east of central London.

Police have said they believe the dead were Chinese but Beijing said the nationalities had not yet been confirmed. Chinese and Vietnamese officials are now both working closely with British police, their respective embassies have said.

Father Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a catholic priest in the remote town of Yen Thanh in northern-central Vietnam’s Nghe An province, 300km (180 miles) south of Hanoi, said he was liaising with family members of the victims.