6 women are rescued from a refrigerated truck in France after making distress call to a BBC reporter

By SYLVIA HUI and JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The BBC and French authorities say that six female migrants trapped inside a refrigerated food truck were rescued by French police after one of the women made a distress call to a journalist. The women, four Vietnamese and two Iraqis, hid for hours in a truck loaded with boxes of bananas in northern France, believing the vehicle was on its way to the U.K. or Ireland. The women struggled to breathe and panicked when they realized the truck was going the opposite way. One of them managed to reach a BBC reporter in London, who then helped the women alert French police. French prosecutors said the truck driver was not at fault. Thousands of migrants attempt to cross from northern France to Britain every year.