Eight Bodies Found in Irish Truck

Hearing faint pounding and moaning, an Irish trucker discovered the bodies of eight would-be refugees and five people clinging to life in his cargo Saturday. Police said they would mount a Europe-wide hunt for the traffickers.

It was the first mass fatality involving asylum-seekers in Ireland, which in recent years has been targeted by rings that smuggle people from poorer countries. Police said they weren’t sure of the victims’ nationalities but were interviewing a 17-year-old survivor who spoke Turkish.

The victims in Ireland were hidden inside a container carrying office furniture that made a journey across Europe. The container was loaded in Italy, shipped by rail to Belgium and left Tuesday from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge for the southeastern Irish port of Waterford. The boat had also recently stopped in Cologne, Germany.

The trucker loaded the container onto his vehicle Saturday morning at Waterford port, then stopped at about 40 miles away and heard faint sounds of pounding and moaning, Irish police said.

The dead were four men, a woman, a boy of about 4, and a boy and girl, both about 10 or 11, police said. The survivors, a woman and four men between 17 and 35 years old, were taken to the hospital.