Turkey crash: Fifteen people killed and 22 injured as bus collides with emergency vehicles

A bus reportedly collided with emergency vehicles who had arrived to attend to a separate incident

Holly Bancroft
Saturday 20 August 2022 11:34 EDT
Comments
The scene of the crash, between Gaziantep and Nizip, close to Turkey’s border with Syria, where a bus careered into emergency services vehicles
The scene of the crash, between Gaziantep and Nizip, close to Turkey’s border with Syria, where a bus careered into emergency services vehicles ( )

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Fifteen people have died and 22 were injured after a bus collided with an ambulance in southeastern Turkey, according to a regional official.

“In all, 15 of our citizens died and 22 were injured ... in an accident involving a bus, an emergency team and an ambulance,” the governor of Gaziantep province, Davut Gul, said.

Local reports suggest that an ambulance, a fire engine and a bus carrying journalists were all involved in a collision with a passenger bus, which overturned and dragged for several metres along the road.

In the process, it hit a fire brigade and paramedic team, who were responding to an earlier traffic incident, as well as hitting a broadcast vehicle belonging to Turkish news agency IHA, news channel TRT World reported.

The governor said that three firefighters, two emergency workers and two journalists were among the dead.

The crash happened at around 10.45am local time between Gaziantep and Nizip, close to Turkey’s border with Syria.

Photos of the scene show the back of an ambulance ripped out and metal debris strewn around it.

Turkey’s interior minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement on Twitter following the crash: “According to preliminary findings, the result of the bus that hit 112 Health, firefighters and police teams involved an accident on Gaziantep Nizip highway.

“A total of 15 of our citizens lost their lives, including two health officers, two IHA reporters, three firefighters and eight passengers.

“The injured were taken to hospital. Our governor and chief of police are at the accident site.

“May God have mercy on our deceased citizens and grant a quick recovery to the wounded.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in