Essex lorry deaths: UK Vietnamese group hands photos of missing to police
A 25-year-old Vietnamese woman is believed to be among the dead after her family received a haunting series of text messages.
Saturday 26 October 2019 14:00, UK
A Vietnamese website in the UK has given police around 20 photos of people reported missing since 39 people were found dead in a lorry in Essex.
The community site Viethome said it was given the photos by families and has handed them to the Serious Crime Directorate.
It has asked relatives not to post the images online.
Those reported missing are aged between 15 to 45.
It follows the discovery of 39 bodies inside a refrigerated lorry container at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays on Wednesday.
According to Sky Sources all of the bodies have been taken to a hospital for post mortem examinations.
What state is the investigation in?
- Four people have been arrested over the deaths, including a man who was arrested at Stansted Airport on Friday
- Detectives have been granted more time to question Mo Robinson, 25, who drove the lorry cab from Northern Ireland to Essex and has been arrested on suspicion of murder
- Police are also questioning a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland, and a man and a woman, both 38, from Warrington, Cheshire - all three were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter
- Belgian authorities are working to "track the route of the container" and find anyone responsible for "collaborating with the transport", a spokesperson said
Belgian police are now looking for the driver who delivered the trailer to Zeebrugge, the port it left to travel to the UK.
In the UK police initially said they believed the deceased were Chinese nationals, but have since said it is a "developing picture".
China has said it cannot yet confirm the victims' nationalities or identities.
Father Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a catholic priest in Vietnam's Nghe An province, said he believed most of the dead to be from impoverished Vietnamese provinces. One of the victims is believed to be Anna Bui Thi Nhung.
A 26-year-old Vietnamese woman is also feared to be among the dead after she was identified as a possible victim by a Hanoi-based human rights group.
Tra My was identified on Twitter by Human Rights Space coordinator Hoa Nghiem, who said the young woman had sent a series of messages to her parents at around the time the container was in Essex.
A Sky News translation of the texts reads: "So sorry mum and dad. The route to abroad didn't succeed. Mum. I love you and dad so much. I am dying because I can't breathe. I am from Can Loc Ha Tinh. Vietnam. Mum. I'm very sorry."
The Vietnamese embassy in London said it had contacted police about a missing woman feared to be one of the dead.
Belgian authorities believe the trailer arrived at Zeebrugge at 2.49pm on Tuesday and left for Purfleet, Essex, on the same day.
The Belgian public prosecutor's office said it is "not clear" when and where victims entered the container, which is owned by Irish company Global Trailer Rental.
The lorry cab driven by Mr Robinson started its journey in Northern Ireland, heading to Dublin and boarding a ferry to Holyhead in north Wales, before meeting the trailer in Purfleet shortly before midnight on Wednesday.
Global Trailer Rental said the container was rented out on 15 October.