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Disaster in Bulgaria: 45 killed in tourist bus fire
Most of the victims burned to death are northern Macedonian tourists, and the cause of the accident on a highway west of Sofia is still unclear: "human error or technical malfunction".
7 passengers managed to escape after escaping through the window.
"The picture is horrible, I've never seen anything like it"
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Bulgaria
Macedonia
Reuters
Tuesday, 23 November 2021, 08:28 Updated: 10:35
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The bus hit a railing on the road.
The scene of the accident, this morning (Photo: Reuters)
At least 45 people, including 12 children, were killed today (Tuesday) when a bus caught fire on a highway in western Bulgaria, officials said.
The bus had mostly tourists from northern Macedonia, and seven people who managed to leap from it escaped and were evacuated to a hospital in the capital Sofia in stable condition.
The cause of the accident is unclear at this time, but Bulgarian officials said the bus apparently hit a railing on the highway before or after it caught fire.
"We have a huge tragedy here," interim Bulgarian Prime Minister Stefan Yanev told reporters.
Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov said the passengers were grouped inside and "burned to ashes".
"The picture is appalling, appalling. I have never seen anything like it before," he told reporters at the scene of the accident.
The accident occurred on the Stroma highway, about 45 km west of Sofia, around 2:00 p.m.
"It's such a huge tragedy."
The scene of the accident, this morning (Photo: Reuters)
The head of Bulgaria's investigation service, Borislav Sarapov, said four North Macedonian travel agency buses arrived in Turkey last night from Turkey.
"The driver's human error or technical malfunction are the two initial versions of the accident," he said.
Northern Macedonia's Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the bus was on its way back to the capital Skopje from a weekend trip to Istanbul.
"I am shocked. This is such a huge tragedy," Northern Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Za'av told private television channel BTV.
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