39 people found dead in refrigerated lorry in Essex were initially believed to be Chinese

Distraught Vietnamese families were seeking information about their missing loved ones last night amid growing fears that some of the 39 people who died in a refrigerated lorry in Essex were from the country.

Text messages from one woman, 26-year-old Pham Thi Tra My, to her mother matched the time of the tragedy. They said: “I’m dying because I can’t breathe.” She has not been heard from since, a family representative told the Guardian.

Man and woman arrested in Warrington as postmortems begin on 39 Chinese nationals

Two more people have been arrested in England as part of the investigation into the deaths of 39 people found in the back of a lorry in Essex, police have said.

A man and a woman, both 38 and both from Warrington, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter, Essex police said.

Couple from Northern Ireland flown over to see Mo Robinson, Guardian understands

• Essex lorry deaths: all 39 victims were Chinese nationals

The parents of a man arrested over the deaths of 39 people found in a refrigerated lorry have been brought by police to England from their home in Northern Ireland to see him, the Guardian understands.

Mo Robinson, 25, a self-employed haulier from County Armagh, was detained after the bodies of 31 men and eight women were discovered in the vehicle on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, on Wednesday.

Murder investigation launched alongside inquiry into possible role of organised crime groups

Police officers are working to identify 39 people found dead in the back of a lorry in Essex as part of a wide-ranging murder investigation into the UK’s worst such tragedy in almost 20 years.

Essex police were alerted to the discovery of the bodies of 38 adults and one teenager in a unit at an industrial park in Grays by the ambulance service at 1.40am on Wednesday.