As many as 50 people were found dead in container in southwestern Pakistan's Quetta city on Saturday, private TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.

Another 110 people were also recovered from the container in Hazar Ganji area of Quetta, capital city of Balochistan province, said the report.

The people inside the container were being smuggled to European countries via Iran, according local TV channel reports.

Police and doctors said that all of the people died due to suffocation.

The people were brought from Afghanistan in a container on Friday and were to be smuggled to Iran on Saturday, reports said.

The driver escaped to avoid arrest after he knew that the people in the vehicle had died.

Emergency was declared at all hospitals in Quetta, according to the DAWN NEWS.

The container entered Pakistani area on Friday through Chaman border and was parked near Quetta.

Some local people informed the police after sensing the smell of bodies, according to the reports.

The News Network International news agency quoted a political leader Senator Hasil Bizenjo as saying that a mafia was involved in illegal human smuggling through Balochistan and other parts of the country. But he said the government had failed to control illegal human smuggling.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2009)