Authorities said on Monday that 46 people were discovered dead inside of a semitruck outside of San Antonio, according to San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS and Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.
Sixteen other people – including four teenagers – were transported to area hospitals while another three were taken into custody, KXAN reported.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the discovery just off Quintana Road is a part of a humanitarian crisis, KENS reported.
“Tonight we’re dealing with a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said, per the station.
According to KENS, authorities haven’t confirmed the victims’ nationalities and ages.
San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) Chief Charles Hood told KENS that more than a dozen hospitalized appeared to have suffered from heat stroke and exhaustion, asserting there was neither water nor air conditioning in the truck.
“We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there," Hood told the station.
KXAN reported that authorities haven’t determined the connection of the trio who were taken into custody to the deaths.
San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) Chief William McManus told the station that the horrific discovery yielded the “largest death toll due to human smuggling” South Texas’ largest city has ever seen.
Hood said it’s unclear as to how long the migrants were in the trailer, per KXAN.
The station reported that all the fatalities were adults.
KENS reported that over 20 emergency vehicles raced to the area of Quintana Road and Cassin Drive at about 6 p.m., with at least 60 firefighters and 10 medical units responding to the scene.
The station reported that Baptist Medical Center in downtown San Antonio took a majority of the patients.
Catholic Charities went to the area to provide any assistance it could, per KENS.
"We know that a lot of people have been taken to the hospitals," Antonio Fernandez, the nonprofit organization's CEO, told the station.