Updated
A serious bus accident occurred during the night around 40 kilometers south of the Bulgarian capital. There were also twelve children on board the bus.
According to the pictures, the bus is completely burned out.
Reuters
According to initial findings, the bus crashed into a guardrail.
Reuters
In total there were around 50 people on the bus.
According to information, the bus should be registered in Skopje.
According to the report, the victims are mainly from North Macedonia.
Dozens of people were killed in a serious bus accident in Bulgaria on Tuesday night. The official news agency BTA reported, citing the Ministry of the Interior, that there were at least 46 dead, including several children. Some of the injured had been taken to a hospital in Sofia, none of them were in mortal danger. In total, there were about 50 passengers and two drivers in the bus, reported the state radio with reference to the police.
Twelve minors are among the dead. “Twelve of the victims were under 18 years old,” said Bulgarian police chief Stanimir Stanev the broadcaster bTV. “The driver was killed instantly so that no one could open the doors.” The seven survivors were rushed to hospital in Sofia with severe burns. They jumped out of the windows of the bus, said the head of a department at the clinic, Maja Arguirowa. According to her, none of the injured is in mortal danger.
The accident occurred on the Struma motorway about 40 kilometers south of the capital Sofia. According to the BTA, the bus had rammed a guardrail shortly after 2:00 a.m. (1:00 a.m. CET) for reasons that were still unexplained and then rolled over. According to initial findings, there were so few survivors because the bus caught fire. It was initially unclear whether he had caught fire before the accident or if he rolled over and then went up in flames. The attorney general’s office started an investigation into the cause of the accident.
Bus was registered in Skopje
A total of around 50 passengers and two drivers were on the bus, reported the state radio with reference to the police. According to the Bulgarian Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, the travelers are citizens of North Macedonia. A Belgian citizen was among the victims, said the interim head of the North Macedonian embassy in Sofia, Vladimir Krastewski, the Bulgarian state radio.
According to the Interior Ministry in Sofia, the bus had been registered in Skopje, had come to Bulgaria from Turkey and was on its way to North Macedonia. The section of the route in which the accident happened is in a hilly area and is known for frequent accidents, as the mayor of a neighboring community said on state radio.
The North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told the state news agency MIA after a conversation with a survivor that the passengers slept on the bus and were woken by a loud bang. “They managed to break one of the windows and save a few people,” said Zaev. “It is a great tragedy.” Many of the victims are minors and “young people between the ages of 20 and 30”.
“I’ve never seen anything so terrible”
Bulgaria’s interim head of government, Stefan Janew, immediately went to the scene of the accident and expressed his deep concern there. “It is a huge tragedy,” said Janew, who offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims.
The acting interior minister, Boiko Raschow, was also shocked and described a gloomy scene at the scene of the accident: “I’ve never seen anything so terrible, it’s hard to bear. The cremated corpses are lying on top of each other in a heap. ” Many of the dead have yet to be identified.
The Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Svetlan Stoev, condoled on Twitter and promised the North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani that the accident would be clarified as soon as possible. Bulgaria was helping North Macedonia at this difficult moment.
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(DPA/chk/fos)