At Least 11 Killed, 48 Others Injured In Two Pile-Up Accidents In Bulgaria: PM

SOFIA, Nov 10 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- At least 11 people were killed and 48 others injured in two multi-vehicle chain collisions on the Trakia motorway near Yambol in Southeast Bulgaria on Tuesday morning, reported Xinhua.

"The result so far is 11 dead and 48 injured," Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said in Varna at a joint briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was paying a visit to Bulgaria.

Later on, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Interior Kaloyan Kaloyanov said at a press conference at the scene of the crash that 10 died at the scene, and one died later in hospital.

He said that one of the chain-reaction accidents occurred in the direction of Burgas, and the other in the direction of Sofia. A total of 86 vehicles were involved in the two chain-reaction accidents, including 63 on the lane heading towards Burgas and 23 on the lane heading toward Sofia, Kaloyanov said.

Lyubomir Nikolov, the acting secretary general of Bulgarian Interior Ministry, who participated at the press conference together with Kaloyanov, said the first accident occurred in the lane heading toward Burgas, where a truck cut off a passenger bus. Subsequently, a truck carrying wheat swerved into it, and a passenger car crashed into the rear of the truck, Nikolov said.

All the deceased were travelling towards Burgas, he said.

The accidents most likely occurred as a result of a sudden, thick fog, he said. "Eyewitnesses said that visibility was about 70-80 metres and suddenly dropped to 10 metres, which is where we believe the accident occurred," Nikolov said.

He also said that all the injured have already been admitted to hospitals. "Let's hope there won't be any more fatalities, but there are people with serious injuries, some of whom are in intensive care units," Nikolov said.

The Health Ministry said in a press release later that approximately half of the site has been cleared, but the most difficult phase of the operation was yet to come -- cutting through and clearing the vehicles that are piled on top of one another.  

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA