Eight killed in new migrant bus accident in western Turkey

BALIKESİR - Doğan News Agency

DHA photos

At least seven migrants and the driver were killed, and 42 others were injured, early on Jan. 9 in the western province of Balıkesir when a bus carrying migrants overturned.

The accident came one day after six people, including four migrants, were killed in the Aegean province of Çanakkale when a bus carrying migrants collided with a car.



The bus, which was carrying migrants to Çanakkale’s Ayvacık to illegally cross Greece’s island of Lesbos, crashed overturned around 3 a.m. near Balıkesir’s Havran district, reportedly due to over speeding.

Eyewitnesses informed the police and the gendarmerie about the accident. When paramedics arrived at the scene, they said the bus driver, identified only by the initials Y.Ö., and seven migrants were dead.



Forty-two injured migrants, who were mostly Syrian citizens, were taken under treatment in hospitals in Balıkesir, İvrindi, Havran and Edremit.

Seven of the injured migrants at the hospitals are in critical condition, according to officials.