POLICE have discovered the partially decomposed bodies of at least 20 migrants piled up in a truck parked on the shoulder of an Austrian highway leading from the Hungarian border.

Police official Hans Peter Doskozil said the truck had Hungarian license plates.

The grisly discovery came as at least 30 more migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, another example of Europe’s deepening migrant crisis.

Doskozil, chief of Burgenland police, said the state of the bodies in the van made establishing the identity and exact number of dead migrants difficult, but the total number could rise to 50.

media_camera Grim find ... Investigators stand near the truck where the bodies were found. Picture: Ronald Zak/AP

He said the truck was apparently abandoned a day earlier on Wednesday by a people smuggling gang and its back door was left open, exposing the bodies to police.

Channel 4 news reporter Lindsey Hilsum described the scene on Twitter: “Just drove past truck on A4 in Austria with 50 dead refugees inside. Terrible smell of death as we passed.”

We can see forensic teams at truck on the side of the A4 in Austria. Terrible smell of death. Austrian police say refugees suffocated inside — Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) August 27, 2015

“They perished here, at the side of a motorway, in the European Union.” @lindseyhilsum reports from Austria https://t.co/Ip7If0LiYl — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) August 27, 2015

Meanwhile, Libya’s coast guard said on Thursday evening that “dozens more” bodies are yet o be recovered from the shipwreck of a boat carrying about 200 migrants bound for Europe.

“We have recovered 30 bodies so far and rescued dozens of people, with dozens more still missing after a boat carrying around 200 migrants sank off (the western port of) Zuwara,” a coast guard official told AFP.

The sinking comes a day after at least 55 bodies were discovered on three overcrowded migrant boats, 52 of whom were found dead of suffocation in the hold of an overcrowded vessel found drifting off Libya.

The gruesome finds come as Europe’s migration crisis was set to be discussed at a summit in Vienna between the European Union and six Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia.

Thursday’s summit is hosted by Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who has invited the prime ministers of the six West Balkan nations as well as German chancellor Angela Merkel.

media_camera Left to rot ... The truck was abandoned a day earlier on Wednesday and its back door was left open, exposing the bodies to police. Picture: Ronald Zak/AP

Austria has complained that the EU has failed to pay enough attention to migrants entering the western Balkans.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz appealed for a fairer redistribution of migrants in an interview with German broadcaster ARD.

“The fact is, there are 18 countries in the European Union that have less refugees in total than Austria does.”

media_camera Crisis meeting ... German chancellor Angela Merkel alongside Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann, right, at the Western Balkans Summit in Vienna. Picture: Joe Klamar/AFP

Following Thursday’s discovery police ordered reporters converging on the scene, about 40 kilometres southeast of Vienna, to move away from the vehicle, a white refrigeration truck with images of food items on it.

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner condemned the traffickers.

“Human smugglers are criminals,” she said in a statement. “Those who still think that they are gentle helpers of refugees are beyond saving.”

Originally published as ‘There was a terrible smell of death’