Austrian driver searches for two migrants found dead on the bus

A manhunt is underway after two migrants were found dead in a minibus loaded with dozens of people who had entered Austria from Hungary.

Austrian troops uncovered the bodies on Tuesday and say the vehicle’s driver fled the scene when he was stopped.

There were about 30 migrants on board, most of whom are thought to have come from Syria, police told AFP news agency.

The incident comes six years after authorities found 71 dead people in a van that had made a similar trip.

The suffocation deaths caused widespread shock, with a Hungarian court later jailing four men for the incident.

On Tuesday, police reported that the bodies of the two victims, thought to be men in their 20s, were found after the vehicle was stopped by members of the military.

The cause of death is unclear and should be confirmed with an autopsy, a police spokesperson told local radio ORF Burgenland.

Police used helicopters, drones and dogs to search for the suspected driver, he added.

Hans Peter Doskozil, governor of the Burgenland region in eastern Austria, told local media that the parallel with the 2015 deaths was “frightening”.

Tuesday’s incident showed “the brutality and inhumanity of organized human trafficking” and called for a European-wide reform of asylum processes, he added.