Detectives were on Thursday focusing in on three suspected Irish gang members who it's believed may have been involved in smuggling 39 migrants into the UK.

The bodies of the eight women and 31 men, who police believe to be Chinese, were on Thursday being transferred to a mortuary as police began the “lengthy and complex” process of identifying them.

Officers were granted more time to question the driver of the cab, who has been named locally as 25-year-old Mo Robinson from Portadown in County Armagh.

He travelled from Dublin to Holyhead in Wales on October 20 before picking up the container at Purfleet in Essex in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It is believed that Mr Robinson, who was only in control of the container for around 35 minutes, may have found his gruesome cargo and called the ambulance services himself.

Security sources told the Telegraph that they were focusing in on a south Armagh-based criminal gang with links to dissident paramilitaries.

The three men, with bases very close to the Irish border, are suspected of involvement in orchestrating the smuggling operation that ended in tragedy on Wednesday with the discovery of 39 bodies in Essex.

One of the men has been linked to the company in Bulgaria which owned the lorry cab that transported the refrigerated container from Purfleet to an industrial estate in Essex before the bodies were found.