WARSAW, Poland, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Three Chechen girls, ages 6, 10 and 13, froze to death but their mother and a 2-year-old survived trying to cross into Poland from Ukraine, Polish media said.
Border guards arrested the woman, who told them about the death of her daughters, Polish Radio said Friday. Polish police opened an investigation into what they called a case of illegal border crossing.
Police found the bodies of the three girls in the Bieszczady Mountain region on Poland’s southeastern border with Ukraine and Slovakia. Initial reports said the children died of exhaustion and hypothermia.
The mother and her child have been detained.
Polish police said that last year there were more than 200 attempts to cross the Polish-Ukraine border illegally, mostly by Chechens with Russian passports, Polish Radio said.
