AT LEAST 16 Bulgarians were killed and 15 injured yesterday when a bus ploughed into a group of people making their way to a traditional Ascension Day festival.
Investigators said they believed the brakes on the bus had failed as it descended a steep road on Mount Bakadzhik, near the town of Yambol in southern Bulgaria, about 260 km (162 miles) from the capital, Sofia.
The bus, which police said was 30 years old but had passed a recent technical inspection, careered down the mountain road and hurtled into a large group of people walking up Mount Bakadzhik towards a monastery where a festival is held every year on the Orthodox Church’s Ascension Day.
Some Bulgarian media said the bus had been carrying 19 elderly passengers, two of whom were killed. Other reports suggested that the vehicle was empty apart from its driver, who suffered minor injuries. A 16-year-old boy who was due to perform at the festival was among the dead.
“It was a hellish scene,” one witness said. “There was a real festival feeling before the crash as everyone celebrated the religious holiday, then all of a sudden there was chaos with bodies being thrown around in all directions.”
President Georgi Parvanov and the prime minister, Sergei Stanishev, both visited the scene of the crash and met survivors, including policeman Dimitar Dimitrov, who onlookers said was struck by the speeding bus after pushing two people out of its path.
“Everything happened very quickly. I have no idea how it all happened,” Mr Dimitrov said.
“I saw a bus coming from the peak, where the stage for the fair was erected. It was moving very fast towards us, there were two women in front of me and I pushed them out of the way. Then I was hit, that was all,” he added, after being treated in hospital for minor injuries.
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