Bulgaria and North Macedonia mourn over bus crash that killed 45 people

BULGARIA and North Macedonia began periods of national mourning yesterday, a day after a bus traveling through Bulgaria carrying tourists to North Macedonia crashed and caught fire, killing 45 people.

The bus with 52 people on board was one in a convoy of buses returning from a trip to Turkey. Though the exact cause of the crash has not yet been determined, the bus apparently ripped through a guardrail on a highway, quickly engulfed in flames and burned out completely. A dozen children were among the dead.

Bulgaria was holding a day of national mourning while North Macedonia began a three-day period. National flags of all state institutions were being flown at half mast while entertainment events were cancelled.

Seven survivors were admitted to hospital at the main emergency hospital in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, with severe burns and body injuries. Forensic doctors from Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, were expected to join their Bulgarian colleagues in Sofia to carry out DNA tests to identify the bodies of those killed.

The Bulgarian interior minister, Boyko Rashkov, told reporters at the crash site on Tuesday that he had never “seen something more horrifying” and that the identification process would take time. He said: “The people who were on the bus are turned to charcoal.”

Among the survivors were five North Macedonia citizens, one Serb and one Belgian, according to North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry.

Albanian foreign minister, Olta Xhacka, said almost all of the dead were ethnic Albanians.