At least 46 people killed in Bulgaria tour bus crash and fire

53 passengers, including 12 children… North Macedonian disaster after returning from Turkey trip

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Cha Byung-seop = At ​​least 46 passengers were killed in a fire on a bus on a Bulgarian highway around 2 am on the 23rd (local time), AFP and Reuters reported, citing local media.

According to reports, the accident occurred on a highway about 45 kilometers from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

The bus caught fire at the time of the accident, causing serious casualties.

Bulgaria’s fire department said 46 of the 53 people on board were killed and seven were taken to hospital. The wounded escaped from the engulfed bus and survived.

Access to the accident site is controlled, and the specific cause of the accident is unknown.

A fire department official told a local broadcaster, “It is unknown whether the bus caught on fire and then caught on fire, but at least 45 people died as a result.” Authorities later raised the death toll to 46.

The BBC, citing local media, reported that the bus may have hit a guardrail.

The bus was on the way from Istanbul, Turkey to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, and it was reported that there were 12 children on board.

Most of the passengers on board were North Macedonians, who were reported to have been involved in an accident on their way back to Skopje after a trip to Turkey. The accident bus is a registered vehicle in North Macedonia.

North Macedonian Foreign Minister Buzar Osmani said: “At the time, bus passengers had an accident on their way back to Skopje after a weekend trip in Istanbul.”

North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is in talks with the Bulgarian government to address the accident.

bscha@yna.co.kr

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2021/11/23 15:15 Send