Report: Austrian police ID ten bodies of 71 found in truck

Hans Peter Doskozi, head of police in Burgenland, Austria speaks at a press conference on August 27, after the truck was found. (Photo: MTI/Csaba Krizsán)

Nine men and one woman of Iraqi origin were identified by the local police and their relatives have been informed, local forces announced yesterday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The dead bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children, who were thought to be refugees, were so decomposed that based on visual inspection and photographs, they could not be identified, local police said. Austrian police hope to continue identifying the bodies with the help of dental records, DNA samples from family members and fingerprint, however, the process is difficult, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing  people familiar with the investigations, The Wall Street Journal reports that initial findings “suggest the migrants were largely Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan nationals on their way from Serbia through Hungary and Austria to Germany ... The migrants are assumed to have died before entering Austria, having suffocated after about a couple of hours inside the airtight truck.”