At least 46 killed in bus crash south of Bulgarian capital

At least 46 people including several children have been killed in a bus crash south of the Bulgarian capital Sofia that one regional leader described as a “huge tragedy.”

The accident occurred early Tuesday on the Struma motorway about 40 kilometres south of Sofia.

Several people injured in the crash have been taken to hospital in Sofia.

According to the investigation, the bus - which was carrying a tour group - rammed a guardrail shortly after 2 am (0000 GMT) and then overturned.

According to initial findings, very few people survived because the bus was on fire. Whether the vehicle caught fire before the crash or if it went up in flames after it overturned was initially unclear.

Caretaker Interior Minister Boiko Rashkov also expressed shock, describing a grim scene at the accident site: “I’ve never seen anything so terrible, it’s hard to bear.”

Bulgarian state radio quoted police as saying about 50 people were on the bus.

Most of the victims were apparently Albanians. The vehicle, which was registered in Skopje, had come from Turkey and was headed to North Macedonia.

The head of the North Macedonian government, Zoran Zaev, and its foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, travelled to Sofia a few hours after the accident.

They visited seven injured people at the Pirogov emergency clinic.

“46 passengers have died, 12 of them are children,” Zaev said.

The state prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.
Sofia (dpa), 23 Nov, 2021