Deaths of at least six people believed to be due to heat inside shipping container in Texas

Seventh body found near railroad tracks thought to be connected to what authorities call ‘potential human smuggling event’ Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Federal agents are investigating the deaths of at least six people thought to be immigrants found inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard near the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday as a “potential human smuggling event”. Officials reportedly have also said the death of a seventh person whose body was found near railroad tracks outside San Antonio, Texas – 150 miles (241km) to the north – may be connected to the case. A Union Pacific employee found the bodies of six people inside a shipping container Sunday afternoon, said Jose Baeza, the Laredo police department public information officer. Dr Corinne Stern, the Webb county medical examiner, is conducting autopsies and completed one for a 29-year-old Mexican woman who died of hyperthermia, or heatstroke. “I’ve ruled that an accidental death,” she said, adding that she believes the others also died from heatstroke but could not rule on their cause of death until she completes their autopsies. Stern estimates it took up to eight hours