Kathmandu,

June28,

Forty-six people were found dead and 16 others were taken to hospitals after a tractor-trailer rig containing suspected migrants was found Monday on a remote back road in southwest San Antonio, officials said.

A city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6 pm Monday, Police Chief William McManus said. Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said.

Of the 16 taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, 12 were adults and four were children, said Fire Chief Charles Hood. The survivors were "hot to the touch" and suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

San Antonio, which is 250km (150 miles) from the US-Mexican border, is a major transit route for people smugglers.

Human traffickers often use lorries to transport undocumented migrants after meeting them in remote areas once they have managed to cross into the United States.