Sofia
\nForty-six people, including a dozen minors, were killed after a bus caught fire south of the Bulgarian capital early Tuesday, officials said, in the country\u2019s deadliest road accident in years.
\nA cause has yet to be determined but officials believe a fire broke out on board the tourist bus which was travelling from Turkey to North Macedonia. It then crashed into guardrails.
\nThere were no other vehicles involved in the accident, which occurred around 2:00 am (0000 GMT) on a highway about 40 kilometres (26 miles) from Sofia, near the village of Bosnek, and seven people survived.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s many victims, 46, including 12 minors,\u201d North Macedonian Health Minister Venko Filipce told public BNT television after visiting survivors in a Sofia hospital.
\nThe seven survivors \u2014 two women, including one aged 16, and five men \u2014 are all from the same family, he said. Among the dead were victims of several nationalities, including a Belgian.
\nBulgaria\u2019s interim Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said a probe into the accident had been launched, dismissing the suggestion that road conditions were to blame.
\nImages showed the carcass of the totally burnt-out bus after it broke through the guardrails between the two sides of the highway.
\n\u2013 \u2018Terrifying scene\u2019 \u2013
\nAccording to bTV, the bus was travelling from Turkey\u2019s main city of Istanbul to Skopje in North Macedonia.
\nLocal media in Macedonia report that the bus was registered to the \u201cBesa trans\u201d tourist agency, which organises touristic and shopping tours to Istanbul.
\nNorth Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told state news agency MIA that he had spoken to one survivor.
\n\u201cHe explained that they were sleeping in the bus when an explosion was heard. They succeeded to break one of the windows and save a few people. Unfortunately, the rest did not succeed,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt is a great tragedy\u2026 12 (victims) are under 18 years old, and the rest are young people about 20 to 30 years old,\u201d he added.
\nBulgarian national police chief Stanimir Stanev while the two drivers of the bus were Macedonian, the passengers were Albanian, according to initial information.
\nStanev said the bus driver died \u201cimmediately so there was no one able to open the doors\u201d.
\nSurvivors \u201cjumped out of the windows\u201d, said Maya Arguirova, head of the treatment centre for severe burns where they were transported.
\nAll survivors were in stable condition.
\nBulgaria\u2019s Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov was among those who rushed to the site of the crash early Tuesday.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a terrifying scene. I haven\u2019t seen anything like that before,\u201d Rashkov told journalists at the site. \u201cNobody can say for certain how many are there and who they were. The bodies are badly burned and have to be identified one by one,\u201d he added.
\nBulgaria has a history of deadly bus accidents. Twenty Bulgarians died in 2018 when their bus skidded on a wet road and overturned.
\nA total of 628 people died in road accidents in 2019 and 463 in 2020 in the country of 6.9 million people, according to official data. The accidents were often attributed to poor road conditions, outdated cars and speeding.
\nTuesday\u2019s accident occurred on a section of highway with steep gradients and without clear demarcation lines, where many accidents have taken place, according to Diana Roussinova of a road safety NGO, which has complained to authorities about the stretch in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sofia Forty-six people, including a dozen minors, were killed after a bus caught fire south of the Bulgarian capital early Tuesday, officials said, in the country\u2019s deadliest road accident in years. A cause has yet to be determined but officials believe a fire broke out on board the tourist bus which was travelling from Turkey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[175,795,796],"class_list":{"0":"post-229148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-accident","9":"tag-bulgaria","10":"tag-bus"},"yoast_head":"\n