Hunt for driver in Austria after two refugees found dead on bus

This incident comes six years after 71 refugees died from suffocation in a lorry.

Austrian police are seen near the Austrian-Hungarian border where two refugees were discovered dead inside the yellow van pictured. (APA/AFP via Getty Images)

The search for a driver is under way after two Syrian refugees were reportedly found dead in a crammed minibus crossing into Austria from Hungary.

According to reports from AFP, the bodies of two men were found on the border by armed forces on Tuesday. They said the bus driver fled the scene when stopped.

Around 30 people were on board and most are believed to be from Syria, according to police.

The two men, thought to be in their twenties, were found after the minibus was stopped by Austrian armed forces. Their cause of death remains unclear.

The minibus driver was pursued by helicopters, drones and dogs following the discovery of the bodies, but they have not been found.

The hunt for the minibus driver is still underway, according to reports. (APA/AFP via Getty Images)

This incident comes six years after the deaths of 71 refugees in Hungary in 2015, who were found dead after suffocating in a sealed lorry.

Hans Peter Doskozil, the governor of the Burgenland region in eastern Austria, described the parallel between Tuesday’s deaths and those in 2015 as "frightening".

He added that Tuesday’s incident highlighted "the brutality and inhumanity of organised human smuggling" and he called for European-wide reforms of the asylum process.

This article was amended on 10 November 2021 to change the reference in the headline to an “Austrian driver’. At the time of writing the driver had not been found and could not therefore be known to be Austrian.