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25th Oct 2019

Man and woman arrested after bodies of 39 people found in container in Essex

Jade Hayden

The remains were discovered earlier this week.

Another man and a woman have been arrested after the bodies of 39 people were discovered in a container in Essex.

Police have said that the man and the woman, who are both 38-years-old, were arrested in Warrington in Cheshire on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people.

This comes after a man from Northern Ireland was arrested on suspicion of murder following the container’s discovery earlier this week.

It is believed that all of the people inside the container were Chinese nationals.

“We hope the UK can verify the identities of the victims as soon as possible,” said Chinese officials. “No matter where these victims come from, this is a tragic case.”

Police in Essex were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park earlier this week, where they discovered the remains of 38 adults and one teenager inside the container.

The container travelled form Zeebrugge in Belgium on Wednesday with the front section coming from Northern Ireland via Holyhead on Sunday.

This is the largest murder investigation that police in Essex have ever worked.

Postmortems are due to begin today.

“Formal identification will then follow the coronial process and will be a lengthy but crucial part of this investigation,” said police.

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