PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — Czech police said they had found around 30 migrants, one of whom died, in a semi-trailer on a motorway between Prague and the southern German city of Dresden on Monday.

A helicopter was deployed to look for several of the migrants who had run away from the truck with foreign licence plates that police had stopped after 1800 GMT.

Police also closed the D8 motorway 18 kilometres (11 miles) north of the capital Prague.

“All these persons have been detained,” police said on X later. “We have no information suggesting someone has managed to escape.”

The migrants appeared to be travelling through the Czech Republic toward another destination, they said adding, “and unfortunately the first information we got from the site mentions one deceased person.”

A private emergency service present on the site said on X it had treated a woman aged about 30, who was unconscious.

“A doctor declared her dead after resuscitation lasting dozens of minutes,” the emergency service said.

The other migrants did not require hospital care, but they were “in poor health”, the emergency service added.

The Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, is a transit country for migrants heading to wealthier European states like Germany.