According to authorities, at least 45 passengers were killed when a bus caught fire and crashed on a motorway in western Bulgaria on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, the bus’s licence plates were from North Macedonia, and local news reports stated that the vast majority of the casualties were from that nation.
The director of the fire safety department at the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, Nikolai Nikolov, told BTV news that 52 passengers were on board the bus when it crashed at 2 a.m. local time, according to BTV.
The Associated Press reports that Mr. Nikolov said that “at least 45 people were killed when a bus crashed and caught fire, or crashed and then caught fire.” He went on to say that children were among those who had perished.
Over the weekend, Bujar Osmani, the foreign minister of North Macedonia, informed BTV that the bus had travelled to Istanbul on its way back.
Seven persons were rushed to Pirogov Hospital in Sofia with burns and lacerations, according to Maya Argirova, the chief of the burn clinic there, who spoke to media.
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev paid a visit to the hospital on Tuesday, where he spoke with some of the survivors.
A number of the victims are minors, he added, adding that he had talked to one person who had managed to smash a glass in the truck and assist many others in escaping. Unfortunately, the situation was not as favourable for the others, he remarked.
A representative for Pirogov Hospital stated that seven patients who had been involved in the collision were being treated there at the time of publication. She confirmed that they were in stable condition through text message.
According to a press statement released on the website of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Svetlan Stoev, the country’s foreign minister, and Mr. Osmani, the country’s foreign minister, talked by phone on Tuesday. He was on his way to the Pirogov Hospital, where he would meet up with Mr. Stoev, according to a press statement issued by the police department.
The scene of the incident was inspected by Stefan Yanev, the acting prime minister of Bulgaria. In a press conference, he said the news had “shook us,” and that his government was working quickly to find out what had occurred.
At least 16 people were killed and another 26 people were injured when a tourist bus transporting 33 pilgrims from a town north of the capital to a monastery crashed near Sofia in 2018.
