VIENNA - Austria has toughened controls at its eastern borders, the interior minister said on Monday, after 71 refugees were found dead in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian highway last week after travelling through Hungary.

"We will do controls for an undetermined length of time at all important border crossings in the eastern region, looking at all vehicles that have possible hiding places for trafficked people," Johanna Mikl-Leitner told ORF radio.

Austria has eastern borders with Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.