Updated: Around 90 migrants found hidden in a trailer on their way from Catania to Messina road

Their conditions were very bad and were on the point of dying due to the enormous heat that has characterised the Taormina area.

Moreover, their condition was made worse because they were so packed that there was little space to breathe.

The trailer, which was travelling in the direction of Messina, was stopped during a routine inspection made by the Traffic Police from the Giardini Naxos police station.

Once they were discovered by the police, the migrants, among who there were women and children, tried to escape.

More than eighty of them were stopped, but the remaining escaped and are still being sought by the Italian police.

The migrants that did not manage to escape were given food and water, and then immediately transferred to the Messina police station to be identified.

The first indications were that the migrants were of African origins, but this still had to be ascertained more fully by the Italian authorities.

The driver of the trailer was arrested and interrogated. It is not excluded that the immigrants were coming from a sea port in the eastern part of Sicily, such as Ragusa or Pozzallo, where usually landings of migrants usually took place.