UK police formally identify 39 bodies found in truck last month

British police said on Thursday they had formally identified the 39 people found dead in the back of a truck near London in October and their families had been notified.

“This is an important step in the investigation and enables us to work with our Vietnamese police colleagues to support the families of those victims,” the senior officer in charge of the enquiry, Essex Assistant Chief Constable Tim Smith, said.

All the 39 people found dead in the back of a truck near London last month were Vietnamese.

The victims came from six provinces - Haiphong, Hai Duong, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Hue - the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

“As of 20:00 p.m. on November 7, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and British authorities had been able to confirm that all of the 39 victims found dead in Essex on October 23 were Vietnamese,” the ministry said in a statement.