A view shows the site where a bus with North Macedonian plates caught fire on a highway, near the village of Bosnek, Bulgaria, November 23, 2021. REUTERS.
SOFIA/SKOPJE: A bus carrying North Macedonian tourists crashed in flames on a highway in western Bulgaria before daybreak on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people, including 12 children, officials said.
The cause of the accident was unclear but the bus appeared to have hit a highway barrier either before or after it caught fire, the officials said.
Seven people who leapt from the burning bus were rushed to the Pirogov emergency hospital in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and were in a stable condition, hospital staff said. They had suffered burns and one had a broken leg.
Bulgaria's interior ministry said 45 people had died, making it the most deadly bus accident in the Balkan country's history.
Interim Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov said bodies were "clustered inside and are burnt to ash".
"The picture is terrifying, terrifying. I have never seen anything like that before," he told reporters at the site.
The accident happened on the Struma highway about 30 km (19 miles) west of Sofia around 2 a.m. (0000 GMT).
The coach party had been returning to Skopje, capital of North Macedonia, after a weekend holiday trip to Istanbul, a trip of about 800 km (500 miles).
Bulgarian investigative service chief Borislav Sarafov said four buses from a North Macedonian travel agency had entered Bulgaria late on Monday from Turkey.
"Human error by the driver or a technical malfunction are the two initial versions for the accident," Sarafov said.
