At least 15 dead and more than 20 injured in Turkey bus crash

A passenger bus has collided with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, leaving at least 15 people dead and nearly two dozen injured.

Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the road between Gaziantep and Nizip, interior minister Suleyman Soylu said.

The other eight fatalities were on the bus, he added, while Gaziantep governor Davut Gul said 22 other people were injured in the incident.

The Ilhas News Agency said two of its journalists were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial accident, in which a car came off the road and slid down an embankment.

Television footage showed a badly damaged ambulance while the bus lay on its side.

Mr Soylu posted a message on Facebook translated as saying: “May God have mercy on our deceased citizens and grant a quick recover to our wounded.”

It has been reported that 5,362 people died in traffic accidents in the country last year.

The accident took place on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip when a passenger bus collided with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident. Picture: Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock.

Last August, 15 people were killed and another 17 injured after a bus veered off a major road and rolled down an embankment in western Turkey.

The crash happened around 4.40am local time in Balikesir province.

Eleven people were declared dead at the scene while four others died later in hospital following the tragic incident.

Turkey’s worst bus crash occurred in 2017 when 23 people, mostly women and children, died when a tourist bus plunged off a road.

Another 11 were injured when the driver ploughed through a crash barrier and fell 50ft off a cliff near Marmaris.

The women and children were on a trip for mother's day It is thought they were heading to the popular resort of Marmaris.

A year earlier, 12 people were killed and at least eight were injured in the Turkish capital, Ankara, when a bus crashed into commuters waiting at a stop. The driver lost control after an apparent brake failure in the Dikimevi district of the city.

Europe’s worst bus crash, in November 2021, saw 46 killed, including 12 children, in Western Bulgaria.

The bus, which was taking a party of North Macedonian tourists home from a break in Turkey, crashed in flames on a highway after hitting a crash barrier.