‘Heroic’ military bus driver dies in hospital
ISTANBUL
DHA Photo
The driver of a bus that was hit in an attack by Kurdish militants in İzmir last week passed away yesterday after battling his wounds for nearly a week since the Foca terrorist attack on Aug. 9.Hasan Furkan Özmen was lauded for preventing a greater loss of life by immediately stopping the bus after the hit, thereby preventing the bus from falling over a cliff.
Özmen’s heart reportedly stopped twice while he was being transferred to hospital following the Aug. 9 attack. He was declared brain dead on Sunday.
One official said he "did not yet know how he had [stopped the car]" but the act itself was "extremely heroic."
One other soldier was killed in the Aug. 9 attack while 10 others were injured when members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) detonated a landmine as the military bus passed by on a road in İzmir’s Foça district.
