Forty-six people die in appalling bus accident in Bulgaria – South West

Appalling drama in Bulgaria on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Forty-six people, including twelve minors, have been burnt to death in a coach accident that caught fire on the motorway, the deadliest in Europe in the past ten years. The Puisseguin coach accident, in Gironde in 2015, had killed 43 people.

Most of the victims are from North Macedonia, where the bus was registered, said Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who immediately went to Sofia to meet the seven survivors in hospital.

The passengers were from different ethnic minorities. A Belgian and a Serb also died, according to Zaev.

“It’s a great tragedy,” reacted the latter. “Twelve of them were under 18”, including five children whose age was not specified, “and the rest were between 20 and 30”.

According to local media, they were on their way to Skopje, returning from a trip to Turkey.

The seven survivors were in the back

The tragedy, the cause of which is still undetermined, occurred around 2 a.m. on the highway near the village of Bosnek, 40 km south of Sofia, said Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov, head of the disaster relief service. was speaking on public television BNT.

According to the account of one of the survivors, “the passengers were sleeping when an explosion occurred”, reported Zoran Zaev, quoted by the MIA news agency.

The seven survivors, who were in the back of the vehicle, “managed to smash one of the windows” and escape the blaze.

They are part of the same family and among them is a 16-year-old girl, said the Minister of Health of North Macedonia, Venko Filipce, also on the spot. Their condition is stable.

“The survivors are traumatized, they have lost relatives, children,” said Maya Arguirova, head of the treatment center for severe burns where they were transported.

“The driver died instantly, so there was no one to open the doors,” National Police Chief Stanimir Stanev told television.

“A terrifying scene”

The images broadcast on television showed the black carcass of the coach, which violently struck the guardrail before igniting. No other vehicle was involved in the accident.

The Bulgarian Interior Minister, who arrived early on the scene, spoke of “a terrifying scene”. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Boyko Rashkov told reporters, adding that it would be difficult to identify the bodies.

In Skopje, panicked residents tried to contact the tourist agency organizing this type of tours in Istanbul, hoping that their relatives were not on the fatal trip.

“We call Besa tours all the time, but no one answers,” Xhelal Bakiu told the media, without news of his cousin.

Bulgarian interim Prime Minister Stefan Yanev has announced the opening of an investigation, ruling out the hypothesis that the condition of the road is in question.