Seven African migrants have been found dead on the Libyan coast whilst trying to illegally cross into Europe.
The dead migrants suffocated to death in a truck which was smuggling them, after the driver abandoned it and they were left locked inside.
Twenty eight others were rescued.
Seven African migrants died, apparently from suffocation, after being locked for two days in a refrigerated truck that was abandoned by people smugglers on the Libyan coast, officials said.
Twenty-eight others, including five women, were rescued on Sunday when the truck was discovered at Garabulli, a town some 50 km (30 miles) east of Tripoli that is a common departure point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
“We got a call from a civilian who reported that he could hear voices coming from a truck, which he believed contained Africans, based on their language,” said Adel Mostafa, an anti-illegal migration official in Tripoli.
The survivors said they had been left there by smugglers, according to Hosni Abu Ayana, a second official at the Tripoli detention center to which they were brought. The migrants said the truck driver left the vehicle at the side of the road after unknown gunmen began firing at the tyres.