site.btaSecond Crash in Two Days Adds to Death Toll on Sopot-Mikre Road

Sofia, November 18 (BTA) - After a road accident in the northern Lovech Region on Friday killed nine people and injured 15, another crash at the same spot between the villages of Sopot and Mikre claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy on Saturday, the Interior Ministry reported.

The boy's 40-year-old mother is in critical condition and her life is in danger, and his 12-year-old brother is in serious condition as well, the ambulance service in Lovech said. A total of six people were hospitalized in Lovech after this second crash.

In Friday's first accident between Sopot and Mikre, nine people died and 15 were injured in a head-on crash between a bus and a truck. Six of them were killed on impact and another three died of their injuries on their way to, or in, hospital. The bus was carrying a total of 27 passengers, all of them with impaired eyesight, on a return trip from the northern town of Dryanovo to their hometown of Pernik near Sofia.

President Rumen Radev, National Assembly Chair Tsveta Karayancheva and Health Minister Kiril Ananiev offered condolences after the first crash on Friday. In his message, President Radev commended the prompt actions of the medical crews and the competent authorities in aiding the survivors and expressed his hope that those injured will recover quickly.

Pernik Mayor Vyara Tserovska visited the injured on Friday night. She told journalists that Monday will be officially a day of mourning in Pernik.