site.btaVan Carrying 17 Illegal Migrants Crashes, Killing 10

108 HOME AFFAIRS - MIGRANTS - CRASH - VICTIMS

Van Carrying 17
Illegal Migrants
Crashes, Killing 10


Pazardjik, South Central Bulgaria, June 4 (BTA) - A van carrying 17 undocumented illegal migrants crashed on the Trakia Motorway at 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a press release.

Nine persons (the driver and nine passengers) were killed in the accident, and eight were injured. Seven or the latter are in a hospital in Pazardjik, and one has been transported to Plovdiv.

The driver was identified as a 16-year-old Bulgarian national with a criminal record. He did not a driving licence.

The hospitalized illegals said they were citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The causes of the accident and the identity of the victims are being established.

Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Mladen Marinov told a news conference in Pazardjik on Sunday that the owner of the van had been apprehended. The illegal migrants who travelled in the van were men from Pakistan and Afghanistan and one Syrian, Pazardjik District Prosecutor Vassil Malinov said at the news conference. Marinov specified that the police had the driver of the vehicle on record in connection with a theft and robbery committed in Sofia in January 2017.

Police are yet to find out whether the illegals crossed into Bulgaria from Turkey or Greece.

The Interior Ministry Chief Secretary said that between 20 and 50 aliens are attempting daily to cross illegally Bulgaria's border with Turkey and Greece. Two such attempts were foiled last night, and 13 illegal migrants were found in a heavy-duty truck on the Bulgarian-Greek border. LI/LG