Police in Texas say they found eight people dead early Sunday in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot. A ninth victim died in a hospital hours later.

Surveillance footage recorded vehicles pulling up to the truck Saturday night, taking a few people at a time from the trailer, then closing the truck and driving away.

The truck's human cargo was discovered after someone from the trailer asked a Walmart employee for water. That led to a police check, and the discovery of about 30 survivors, including two school-aged children, along with those who died - all adult men. Authorities at a hospital where the survivors were taken said 20 people were in critical condition.

"We're looking at a human trafficking crime this evening," San Antonio police chief William McManus said, calling the case a "horrific tragedy."

San Antonio's fire chief, Charles Hood, said it was likely no one would have survived another night in the trailer, after a day in which temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius.

The trailer was a refrigerated freight carrier, but its cooling system was not working.

A 60-year-old man from Florida, said to be the truck's driver, was arrested, and authorities said he would face criminal charges in court on Monday.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly promised a thorough investigation.

"These smugglers have no regard for human life and seek only profits," Secretary Kelly said in a statement Sunday. He pledged that authorities in the U.S., Mexico and Central America will "root out these smugglers, bring them to justice and dismantle their networks."

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