Tragedy in Bulgaria: "We broke the windows to be saved" describes survivors
Children under the age of 18 are among the victims of the tragic accident in Bulgaria. Bulgarian Interior Minister Boyko Raskov spoke of an "image that not everyone can bear to see".
There are no words to describe the tragedy that took place in Bulgaria with a bus that caught fire while transporting citizens of Northern Macedonia, returning to Skopje after a visit to Istanbul.
The Prime Minister of Northern Macedonia, in a statement to the state news agency of his country "MIA", spoke of a "tragedy", about which, as he said, he was personally informed by the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev and the caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria Stefan.
"I had the opportunity to talk to one of the survivors. He told me that they were sleeping on the bus when a loud explosion was heard. They managed to break one of the windows and save some people. Unfortunately the others could not be saved. It is a terrible tragedy because "Most of the victims are young: 12 children under the age of 18 and others 20-30. Most of them are citizens of our country, but there are also from Serbia," Zaef added.
At the same time, Bulgarian Interior Minister Boyko Raskov spoke of a "terrible picture" that "not everyone can bear to see".
Northern Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the bus, which was engulfed in flames, belonged to a Skopje tourist office. In this, as he said, were mainly young couples who took advantage of the three days, as yesterday, Monday, was a holiday in the country - Albanian Alphabet Day - and went on an excursion to Istanbul.
Nikolai Nikolov, a Bulgarian Interior Ministry official, said the tragedy, which unfolded at 2am (Greek time and time), on a section of a highway near the village of Bosnek, about 40km south of the capital Sofia, had resulted in casualties. 46 of the 53 passengers died while seven "could be saved" by jumping from the burning bus.
A Serb and a Belgian are among the tourists from Northern Macedonia who were on the bus. It is not yet clear whether they are among the dead or injured.
The seven survivors, who were burnt, were rushed to the emergency department of a Sofia hospital, Nikolov told the state-run BNT television network. Their condition is characterized as stable.
