HOUSTON (AP) — Three people have been charged with human smuggling after a dozen more people, believed from Latin America, were rescued from the locked cargo area of a box truck where they had been left to swelter in the Houston summer heat.

Harris County prosecutors say the trapped people banged on the truck walls to get the attention of passersby as the temperature inside topped 100 degrees (38 Celsius). The truck was left Sunday on the city's west side where police found them soaked in sweat and exhausted. They include 10 men, one woman and one girl. All are in custody.

Twenty-one-year-old Priscila Perez Beltran, 26-year-old Adela Alvarez and 27-year-old Nelson Cortes Garcia were arrested and are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. They are each being held on $300,000 bond.

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