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The abandoned truck was carrying 40 illegal migrants, the interior ministry said.

Bulgarian police found 18 migrants dead in a secret compartment of a timber truck abandoned near Sofia, the Bulgarian interior ministry said on Friday.

The police took action shortly after 2 p.m. after receiving notification of an “abandoned truck in the village of Lokorsko,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added the truck was transporting “illegal migrants — a total of about 40 people, who were concealed in a specially built secret compartment under transported timber.”

Fourteen people were rushed to hospital, eight of whom were in a grave condition, Bulgaria’s health emergency center told state news agency BTA.

The cause of the deaths remained unclear as the police investigation continues, but there was “no evidence of a traffic accident,” the ministry’s statement read.

The drivers of the truck reportedly fled.

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