The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Bangkok

Fifty-four migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck Thursday, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled to Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the driver's help.

More than 100 migrants, mostly women, were about two hours into their trip to the resort island of Phuket late Wednesday when they started collapsing, police and survivors said. At that point, in Ranong province near Myanmar, their ruckus caused the driver to stop. When he unlocked the container and discovered the dead workers, survivors said he ran off.

Forty-seven of the occupants survived, but 21 were hospitalized. The rest were held for questioning, Police Col. Kraithong Chanthongbai said.

Local television footage showed police lifting bodies out of the truck and images of the container empty except for a few pieces of clothing. The dead workers - many wearing little more than T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops - were seen laid out on the floor of a local charity.

"I thought everyone was going to die," said Saw Win, a 30-year-old survivor, told The Associated Press from police custody. "I thought I was going to die. If the truck had driven for 30 minutes more, I would have died for sure."

Win said that about 30 minutes into the trip workers pounded on the container, screamed for air and called the driver, who briefly turned on the air conditioning.

The air conditioning later went off, and they called the driver again 30 minutes later but his phone was off. They continued pounding and yelling until he stopped the truck about an hour later, unlocked the container and ran off when he saw the state of the victims, Win said.

"When police got to the scene, they found that 54 of the workers were already dead in the packed container truck," Kraithong said.

Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men. Kraithong said 101 people were packed into the 7 feet by 20 feet container.

Police did not immediately know what jobs they were heading for, but illegal migrants from Thailand's impoverished neighbor generally come to the country to work in the fishing and construction industries or as maids.

Survivors told police that they each paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand.

Police were searching for the truck's driver, who they accused of failing to provide enough air conditioning in the back of the truck, and members of the smuggling gang they believed arranged the trip.