North Macedonian bus catches fire on Bulgarian highway, at least 45 dead

(Patria) - At least 45 people have died after a bus with North Macedonian license plates caught fire on a highway in western Bulgaria early on Tuesday, a senior official from the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said.

“45 or 46 people have died”, said Nikolay Nikolov, head of the fire safety department at the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, for the Bulgarian public television BNT, according to AFP.

Among the dead there are also children, and seven people with burns have been taken to a hospital in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Nikolov said for the private BTV television, Reuters reports.

The North Macedonian news agency MIA reports that 12 minors have died, including twins. The bus driver also died.

The bus, which carried 52 people, was traveling on the Struma highway from Sofia towards Blagoevgrad in the southwest of the country, and the accident occurred near the exit for the town of Bosnek, about 40 kilometers south of Sofia, according to the BTV television website, Hina reports.

An official from the North Macedonian embassy in Sofia confirmed to BTV that the majority of the dead are North Macedonian citizens.

Al Jazeera reporter Zoran Kosanović said that Bulgarian Prime Minister Stefan Yanev informed Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev about the accident, who headed towards Sofia.