Photo: DIMITAR KYOSEMARLIEV / AFP / Getty Images
At least 12 minors are among the 45 victims who died burned inside a tourist bus in a road accident occurred on a road in Bulgaria , according to local reports.
The tragedy occurred when the bus collided with a road railing, crashed and caught fire around 2 am Tuesday.
The passengers were mostly North Macedonia tourists returning from a trip to Turkey , authorities said, and some of the children are believed to have been on a school trip with their parents.
Authorities have said many of the victims are believed to be family members, with local media reporting that a couple of children, who were sitting in the arms of their mother when the bus exploded, they are among the dead.
The Prime Minister of North Macedonia later said one victim was Serbian and another had Belgian citizenship, adding that most of the victims were young adults between 20 and 30 years.
Seven people were able to escape from the burning bus, through a window, including a girl from 16 years, and they were taken to hospital in the capital, Sofia, with severe burns , but non-life threatening injuries.
Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov, who visited the scene in the early hours, said that the bodies of the dead were “completely charred” by the intensity of the fire.
The bus, one of the four traveling together, crashed on the Struma Highway at about 26 miles west of Sofia. Authorities said an investigation will be launched.
Photos taken shortly after the accident showed the bus was engulfed in flames with plumes of black smoke and thick leaving the scene.
Rashkov told reporters at the crash site that “I have never seen anything more horrible in my life” .
“The image is horrible, the people who were on the bus are turned into coal,” he said. Rashkov. “It is impossible to say how many there were. There were four buses traveling together and it is possible that passengers changed buses during stops. ”
The bus was reportedly diesel, more difficult to exploit, which raised questions about what caused the bus to burn.
“Of the victims, 12 in total they were under 18 years ” National Police Chief Stanimir Stanev told bTV television.
“The driver died immediately, so no one could open the doors, ”he added.
Macedonian local media report that the bus was registered with the tourism agency ‘Besa trans’, which organizes sightseeing and shopping trips to Istanbul.
Tuesday’s accident occurred on a stretch of road with steep slopes and without clear demarcation lines, where they have pro It has caused many accidents, according to Diana Roussinova of a road safety NGO, who has complained to authorities about the section in the past.
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