Three Syrian child refugees 'vanish' from Austrian hospital

Three Syrian children hospitalised with severe dehydration after being rescued in Austria from a van packed with migrants have "vanished" with their parents, police said on Sunday.

The children - two girls and a boy aged between one and five years old - were said to have been crammed in the back along with other refugees and migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Their rescue came a day after an abandoned truck containing 71 dead refugees including four children was found on a motorway in eastern Austria near the Hungarian border, provoking international revulsion.

The children in the van were in an "extremely bad state of health" and if the journey had continued the situation "could probably have become critical," police in Upper Austria state in northern Austria said.

The US news organisation, NPR, says the family left the hospital on their own accord, despite the hospital’s objection.

The Austria Press Agency on Sunday quoted a doctor at the hospital in Braunau am Inn saying that although the children would have been kept in, "from a medical point they were not in danger any more".

The Fiat Ducato with Spanish number plates driven by a Romanian began its journey in Hungary and was headed for Germany.

Hungary, Austria's neighbour to the east, has this year reported more than 140,000 migrants crossing over from Serbia. Most go on to places like Germany or Sweden, via Austria.

Since Hungary is in the visa-free Schengen zone, onwards travel is relatively easy.

Austrian police have however stepped up checks, and Furtner said that this year alone police in Upper Austria have arrested 93 human traffickers transporting a total of 1,630 migrants.

"These are the ones we arrest. Most escape," he said.