An ambulance pictured leaving the site earlier today (Picture: Reuters)

Police in Bulgaria have discovered an abandoned truck containing the bodies of 18 people.

They are all believed to be migrants who suffocated within the vehicle.

According to the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, the truck had been abandoned near Sofia.

The driver was not at the scene, but police discovered the passengers in a secret compartment below a load of timber.

‘According to initial information, the truck was transporting illegal migrants – a total of about 40 people, who were hiding… under transported timber,’ the ministry said.

The survivors were taken to hospital for medical treatment, it said.

Eight of the people rushed to hospital were in grave condition, Bulgaria’s health emergency centre told state news agency BTA.

The truck was discovered near the village of Lokorsko, some 20 kilometres – 12 miles – north-east of the capital.

Authorities did not immediately give the nationalities of the migrants, but Bulgarian media has reported all the victims were from Afghanistan.

Security officials gather on the outskirts of the village of Lokorsko (Picture: Getty Images)

A security official gestures as an ambulance away from the scene (Picture: AFP)

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The truck had been abandoned near the capital Sofia.