Bulgaria bus crash kills 45, including 12 children

The bus caught fire while wandering along the highway divider

The accident happened when a Macedonian tourist bus was returning to its homeland after completing its trip to Turkey.

SOFIA: At least 45 passengers, including 12 children, were killed in a horrific bus crash early Tuesday morning on an international highway west of Bulgaria, North Macedonia's chief public prosecutor said.

Lubomir Vesky, the public prosecutor for the northern province of Macedonia, told reporters that he had personally visited the scene of the tragic accident on a highway in western Bulgaria early Tuesday morning.

The cause of the accident could not be ascertained but at first glance it appears that the bus caught fire as it wandered along the highway guard rails (dividers) or large stones placed at different places on the highway, he added. Some of the tourists from Macedonia, a country bordering Bulgaria, went on a trip to Turkey.

The accident happened when four buses of the tourists reached Turkey on the land border and were returning home after completing their journey, the prosecutor said. The injured passengers were shifted to a nearby city hospital for treatment.