Vienna - (AFP) - Three migrants were killed and others injured Saturday when the truck carrying them attempted to flee from Austrian border police, the Interior Ministry and the Austrian News Agency (APA) said.

The Interior Ministry said the accident occurred in Burganland, the border crossing with Slovakia.

Twenty people, including children and women, were found inside the back of the truck, two men and a woman died, and the driver was arrested, according to the Austrian agency.

"The tragic death of three people today (...) once again demonstrates the brutality and unscrupulousness of the people-smuggling mafias," Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in a statement.

Communication with the police has not yet been available.

Last May, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior announced the dismantling of a network of smugglers that smuggled tens of thousands of displaced people, especially Syrians, from Hungary to Austria.
In 2015, 71 bodies, including children, were found in a truck. It is likely that they suffocated during their transfer to Hungary.