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Apparently: the bus hit the checkpoint before or after it started to catch fire
(Photo: AFP)
In pictures broadcast on Bulgarian television, the scorched bus is seen standing in the middle of the highway. Seven people who managed to jump and escape from the burning bus were evacuated in stable condition to a hospital in the capital Sofia. “This is a huge tragedy,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said, and Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov added: “People gathered inside and were burned to ashes. The sight is appalling, appalling. I have never seen anything like it.”
The disaster occurred around 2:00 a.m. local time about 45 miles west of Sofia. According to the head of the Bulgarian Investigation Service, Borislav Saprov, the bus was one of four North Macedonian travel agency buses that entered Bulgaria from Turkey late yesterday evening.
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Number of road deaths in Bulgaria: second highest in the EU
(Photo: EPA)
Northern Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Boeger Osmani said the buses were on their way back to his country from a weekend trip to Istanbul. Northern Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zeev told Macedonian television channel BTV: “I am shocked, this is such a great tragedy.” Investigators in Bulgaria are now investigating whether the driver’s human error caused the disaster, or whether it was a technical malfunction. According to Zeev, one of the survivors told him that during the disaster most of the passengers were asleep, and suddenly they woke up to the sound of an explosion.
The death rate in road accidents in Bulgaria was in 2019 the second highest rate in the 27 EU countries. As of that year, the number of fatalities in accidents in Bulgaria was 89 per million people. About seven million people live in Bulgaria.
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