SOFIA, 24 November 2021, (TON): Officials said “at least 45 people, including a dozen minors, were killed after a bus caught fire south of the Bulgarian capital early.”

A cause has yet to be determined but officials believe a fire broke out onboard and the bus crashed into guardrails.

There were no other vehicles involved in the accident, which occurred around 2:00 am (2400 GMT) on a highway about 40 kilometres (26 miles) from Sofia, near the village of Bosnek.

National police chief Stanimir Stanev said “of the victims, 12 in total were under the age of 18.”

He told media that 45 of the 52 people on the bus were killed. Nikolay Nikolov, head of the Fire Safety and Civil Protection department at the interior ministry, told public broadcaster BNT that “seven passengers survived”.

He added “they were taken to a hospital in the capital with serious burns.”

According to local media, the bus was travelling from Turkey’s main city of Istanbul to Skopje in North Macedonia. North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the victims were probably fellow Macedonians.