We heard helpless voices coming from the container, say eye witnesses

In a bone chilling incident, police rescued as many as 100 men, women and children, who were found packed inside a windowless shipping container on a truck plying on Agra-New Delhi highway.

Residents and police officials were astonished when they heard helpless voices coming from inside a container pleading for someone to rescue them.

People were startled when they first heard humans shouting and knocking from inside the container. The truck, however, managed to travel five more kilometres and negotiate two major crossings, including Sultanganj and Bhagwan Talkies, before policeman Raj Narain Uttam, guarding the western point of the crossing at Khandari, gauged that there was something wrong about the vehicle.

Times of India reported Uttam had spotted desperate hands waving from some small openings on top of the container. By then, the voices were screaming so loud that they could be heard above the horns of vehicles passing by.

He ordered the driver to stop the vehicle but he allegedly kept going until the policeman chased the truck for 500m before flagging it down.

When the driver opened the container's doors, policemen and onlookers were shocked to see over 100 people were packed close to one another in the airless box in the steaming heat.

Of the nearly 50 children inside, several had lost consciousness due to the heat (well above 40 degrees Celsius, not counting the suffocating conditions inside the box) and humidity. The others, ranging in age from 2 to 14 years and mostly dressed in single pieces of cloth, were barely able to stand when they were freed.

"I cried when I saw the children, trapped inside the container, shouting for help. When the driver opened the doors, it felt like we were standing near a ball of fire. The people inside, packed along with their belongings, were wet with sweat, thirsty from the hours of confinement and helpless. No one had come to their aid even though they had been shouting and banging on the walls for hours," Uttam told TOI.

The news daily reported that the group turned out to be agricultural labourers being taken to work from Khaga in Fatehpur district to Govardhan in Mathura, a distance of more than 400 km, to sow rice. They had hired the container truck (HR55 M 9234) for Rs 2,000 and had been shut in with no respite for hours. The journey had started from Khaga on Sunday night. The driver stopped the truck thrice during the trip, which had been on for about 12 hours.

"We managed to endure being locked during the night but after sunrise, the condition inside the vehicle became terrible. We asked the driver to open the doors but he refused and locked them from the outside," said Raju, one of the labourers.

"We have seized the truck and the driver Deepak has been booked for cruelty," said Ashok Kumar, CO Hariparwat, told TOI.

(Image: automotive logistics magazine)