A 5-year-old migrant boy who risked dying from hypothermia while hiding in a freight train near the border with Austria has been rescued by Italian police and taken to a hospital.
The boy, who told railway police that his name is Anthony and he is from Sierra Leone, was found on Monday at the Brenner station, where trains are routinely checked to prevent illegal border crossings.
He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors said on Tuesday that the boy was doing "well," the ANSA news agency reported, quoting unnamed sources from the medical facility.
The boy was alone, but he had a bag with him containing female accessories. Authorities are investigating whether adults who may have been with him left the boy on the train to avoid police checks.
The president of Italy's German-speaking province of South Tyrol, Arno Kompatscher, said it was "shocking" to find the abandoned child.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, more than 14,500 unaccompanied children were among the roughly 114,600 migrants who have landed on Italian shores in the year to date.