People at the scene of the accident between Gaziantep and Nizip in Turkey Photo: Ihlas News Agency via REUTERS
From BZ/afp
At least 32 people died in two serious traffic accidents in south-east Turkey on Saturday. 50 others were injured in the separate accidents, Turkish media reported.
The first accident, which killed 16, occurred between Gaziantep and Nizip in south-eastern Anatolia.
According to the Turkish news agency DHA, an ambulance, a fire engine and a vehicle belonging to a journalist team, all of which were traveling to the scene of an accident, were hit head-on by a bus. 21 people were injured in the accident.
According to local media, three firefighters, four paramedics and two employees of the Turkish news agency Ilhas were among the 16 dead. Images released by the DHA news agency showed the rear of an ambulance partially torn open and numerous vehicle wreckage.
A few hours later, another accident happened 250 kilometers to the east: in the city of Derik in Mardin province, a truck crashed into a crowd when its brakes failed, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter. At least 16 people were killed. 29 other people were injured, eight of them seriously.
Video footage released by Turkish media showed the truck smashing into several vehicles at full speed and pedestrians trying to flee. Shortly before, another accident involving three vehicles had occurred at the scene of the accident, according to the state news agency Anadolu. Therefore, rescue workers were already on site when the truck driver lost control and drove into the crowd.