10 People Dead After Cops Found Dozens Inside Semi Truck Parked Outside Texas Walmart

Police found eight people dead and 30 others suffering from injuries inside a semi truck’s trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas, early Sunday morning, according to multiple reports. Two more people later died in a hospital.

In what officials are describing as a possible human trafficking crime, authorities said a Walmart employee called the police after a person who appeared to be distressed asked for water, KENS5 reported. The person also reportedly told the employee that there were people inside a trailer who needed help.

When police arrived on the scene around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, they searched the trailer and found people with varying injuries. Firefighters, at least 29 fire units and two AirLIFE choppers responded to the scene, KENS5 reported. The driver has reportedly been detained.

Police said 17 victims were taken to University Hospital and San Antonio Military Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Those with non-life threatening injuries were taken to five other area hospitals, KENS5 reported.

Eight victims were pronounced dead at the scene and officials said all of those found dead are believed to have died as a result of heat exposure/asphyxiation, KENS5 reported.

The four youngest victims range in age from 10 to 17-years-old. At least one of them is in serious condition.

A U.S. official says the death toll from people found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart has risen to 10.

Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press that two people later died in a hospital. Homan also said that there may have been up to 100 people in the truck.

Authorities believe this was a smuggling attempt and San Antonio police say that U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agents were also called to the scene, KENS5 reported.

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The driver of the truck was arrested and could face federal and state charges, ABC News reports.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said they are still investigating where the truck came from. A surveillance video shows a number of vehicles entering the parking lot to pick “up lots of folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” McManus told ABC News.

“We’re looking at a human trafficking crime here,” McManus said.

The truck reportedly had no working air-conditioning, and temperatures topped 100-degrees Fahrenheit, ABC News reported.

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said that after the trailer was discovered, a “mass casualty incident” was called. Hood also said that some of those with injuries related to heat stroke may result in brain damage, CNN reported.

“With heat strokes or heat injuries, a lot of them are going to have some irreversible brain damage,” Hood said.

The San Antonio Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.