MEXICAN authorities have found 229 migrants packed in the back of a lorry travelling through the eastern state of Veracruz.

Jose Manuel Pozos, the state’s deputy government secretary, said the migrants were discovered trapped in a lorry reported stolen after they had begun to call for help from a police-operated vehicle pound. 

Most of the migrants were from Central America, 17 were minors and a number were dehydrated, he said.

Veracruz is one of a number of states that migrants have historically crossed to reach the United States.

Preyed upon by cartels and other criminal groups, migrants are often packed into lorries in dangerous conditions to evade official checks while being smuggled north.

A worker at the Xalapa vehicle pound, where the lorry was taken, told journalists that the trailer had been stopped about 28 miles south-east of the city and that, hours after arriving at the lot, workers began to hear shouting and banging coming from inside.

When they realised people were locked in the trailer, they called emergency services to open the vehicle, said the worker, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

In the afternoon, the migrants were removed from the vehicle pound in state police buses, but Veracruz police did not say where they were being taken.