Austrian police found eight people from Turkey hidden in life-threatening conditions in a narrow wooden pallet box attached to the underside of a lorry. Police said the group had been trafficked from Romania via Hungary. Several of them suffered from hypothermia during the trip in freezing temperatures, and some fainted because they were exposed to exhaust fumes for hours. The group reportedly described their hiding place as a “horror box”. The discovery was made last month at a motorway stop near Schwechat, south-east of Vienna, after a tipoff from German authorities, and was only publicised on Wednesday. Officials said the driver, a 39-year-old Turkish man, confessed to having smuggled up to 40 people to Austria on eight trips. Each had to pay between €15,000 and €16,000 for the dangerous ride. An alleged accomplice, a 56-year-old Turkish man, was arrested on Friday in the Austrian city of Graz. “This case shows once again how inhumane organised trafficking criminals act,” Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, said, according to the national broadcaster ORF. “We must ensure that a robust protection of the EU’s external borders deprives these criminals of their business basis.”