Bulgaria bus accident: At least 46 children killed
The bus was registered in northern Macedonia and was mainly carrying tourists returning from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey.
Seven people escaped from the bus with burns and were taken to hospital.
Speaking at the scene, Bulgarian Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov said the victims had been badly burned, describing it as a “horrific scene”.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Bulgarian officials say the bus fell off the motorway and broke the 50-meter (164-foot) barrier, but it is not clear if it was before or after the fire.
The next photo shows a section of the road where the barrier was cut. No other vehicle was involved in the accident.
The mayor of Parnik village told local media that the motorway in that part was in bad condition and there were frequent accidents in the area.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told reporters that the coach’s party was returning to the capital, Skopje, from a weekend trip to the Turkish city of Istanbul.
Bulgarian media reports said the car, which was traveling as part of a convoy of buses, stopped at a petrol station near Sofia about an hour before the crash.
The dead have not yet been officially named, but officials say they include children and young people between the ages of 20 and 30.
Macedonian TV channel Alsat has published a list of names on the bus. The Albanian foreign minister’s remarks indicated that most of the passengers were ethnic-Albanians from northern Macedonia.
Earlier, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zayev said he had spoken to one of the survivors, who told him passengers were asleep when the sound of an explosion woke them up.
Mr Jev told Bulgarian media that “he and the other six survivors broke the window of the bus and escaped, only to be able to defend themselves.”
He said the bus belonged to Besa Trans, a travel agency that organizes trips to Europe.
Within hours of the disaster, relatives of people who had traveled to Turkey with Besa Trans last week gathered outside the firm’s office in Skopje, eager for information.
Bulgaria bus accident: At least 46 children killed
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News East India staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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