Hungarian police have arrested four people after the bodies of 71 migrants were found in a lorry abandoned in Austria on Thursday.

Three of those arrested are reported to be from Bulgaria, with a fourth suspect from Afghanistan.

The lorry had the branding of Slovakian poultry firm Hyza, but the company said that it did not own the vehicle.

The victims, believed to be Syrians fleeing the ongoing civil war, included 59 men, eight women, and four children.

Hans Peter Doskozil, Burgenland province police chief, said:

“Our preliminary assumption is of course that they were refugees, possibly a group of Syrian refugees.”

It is understood that the refugees had died two days prior to being discovered, likely before the lorry crossed from Hungary into Austria. Refrigerated lorries like the one in which the bodies were discovered are rarely used for people smuggling as they offer no ventilation.