At least 12 people have died following two huge car pile-ups involving around 86 vehicles on a highway in southeastern Bulgaria on Tuesday morning.
The Interior Ministry said the major incidents, which occurred on the Trakia highway near the city of Yambol, were caused by reduced visibility due to heavy fog in the area.
According to local reports, one of the crashes occurred at kilometre 289 on the carriageway towards Burgas.
The other took place at kilometre 294, before the Zimnitsa junction, on the carriageway towards Sofia.
Police, firefighters and ambulance crews rushed to the scenes, where cars and trucks appeared to be pulled up across both sides of the road.
Many of the vehicles had been overturned, crushed or veered off the side.
Around 46 people were taken to regional hospitals in Silven, Yambol and Burgas, but some people may still be trapped in their cars.
“Right now, the priority is rescue operations,” Chief Inspector Todor Mishinev from the Yambol Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told local news.
“Once they are completed, the procedural and investigative actions will be carried out.”
Prime Minister Rumen Radev has cancelled his scheduled engagements in Varna, Bulgaria’s third-largest city, following his meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen due to the tragedy.
Tuesday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers has also been cancelled.
According to the Council of Ministers, Mr Radev has sent the government plane to Burgas in readiness to transport those injured in the crash to hospitals in Sofia. Air transport to hospitals in Sofia has also been organised with Spartan military transport planes.
Identities of those killed in the two crashes have yet to be announced but tributes have already started pouring in on social media.
“My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the tragic crash on the Trakia motorway,” Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, wrote on X.
“Gratitude to the rescue services and medical teams working tirelessly at the scene of the incident. At this difficult time, our thoughts and hearts are with everyone affected by the tragedy.”
Yambol is located around 185 miles from Bulgaria’s capital, and around 31 miles north of the border with Turkey.
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