North Macedonian tourists killed in bus accident

At least 45 people including 12 children have died after a bus carrying mostly North Macedonian tourists crashed in flames on a motorway about 45km west of Sofia hours before daybreak on Tuesday.

Seven people who leapt from the burning bus were taken to hospital in Sofia and were in stable condition, hospital staff said. Bulgaria’s interior ministry said 45 people died, making it the most deadly bus accident in the country’s history.

The coach party was returning to Skopje from a weekend holiday trip to Istanbul, a trip of about 800km. The cause of the accident was unclear, but the bus appeared to have hit a barrier either before or after it caught fire, Bulgarian officials said.