Four men charged with murder on Wednesday went on trial in Hungary for killing 71 refugees found suffocated to death in the back of a lorry at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015.

Accompanied by police wearing full face masks, the one Afghan and three Bulgarian defendants walked into the court room packed with journalists and onlookers.

59 men, eight women and four children were found crammed into the small, unventilated vehicle, abandoned on the side of a motorway in Hungary’s neighbour, Austria.

Their death shocked Europe as it struggled to cope with the biggest influx of migrants since World War Two.

“The 71 victims due to the small space, inability to move, a lack of air and overheating died shortly after they set off on the journey.

“Before their death they continuously banged on the walls of the lorry and shouted,” the court said on its website before the hearing.

It was the worst incident seen across the Balkans, where hundreds of thousands of people were making their way from the Middle East, Africa and southern Asia up to the richer countries of Western Europe.

The trial is taking place in Hungary as authorities said that was where the refugees died, at the beginning of their trip into Austria.

The four defendants were also charged for trafficking other migrants over several months alongside seven other men.

Only six of those, all Bulgarians, appeared in court in the Hungarian city of Kecskemet.

However, authorities said that one of the accused is still on the run.