(Reuters) — Three young children are being treated for dehydration in an Austrian hospital after they were rescued from a van crammed with 26 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Austrian police said on Saturday (August 29).
The two girls and a boy, aged five and six, were found close to death when police stopped the vehicle after a chase near the Austrian town of St. Peter am Hart on the border with Germany, a police spokesman said.
They were recovering in St. Josef’s hospital in Braunau am Inn but no one was immediately available to comment on their condition.
The incident follows the discovery of the corpses of 71 refugees in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian highway on Thursday (August 27), victims of an unfolding tragedy as refugees and migrants escaping conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East flock to Europe in unprecedented numbers.