Updated

An Austrian interior ministry says the number of migrants found dead in a truck abandoned on a highway has now risen to more than 70.

The count given Friday by Interior Ministry official Alexander Marakovits is significantly higher than the estimate of 20 to 50 that authorities gave Thursday.

Police found the refrigeration truck parked on the safety lane of the main highway connecting Vienna and Budapest, Hungary.

The truck was towed to a refrigerated warehouse near the border with Hungary to allow police and experts to do a body count. Autopsies will be conducted to determine how the migrants died.