Yesterday's bus crash in Bulgaria, which killed at least 46 people, is the worst bus crash in Europe in a decade. This is how Agence France-Presse (AFP) commented on the tragedy that happened early morning yesterday on the territory of Bulgaria with a bus with Macedonian registration.

Commenting on the tragic details of the incident, the agency is looking at the continent's biggest bus tragedies in the last 10 years.

• 2021: Catastrophe in Bulgaria

At least 46 people, including 12 minors, died when a bus traveling from Istanbul to the northern Macedonian capital, Skopje, burst into flames in Bulgaria early this morning. Most of the passengers are from the Albanian minority in the RNM.

According to official data, in 2019 in the country with a population of 6.9 million people a total of 628 people died in road accidents, and in 2020 - 463 people. Road accidents are often due to poor road conditions, obsolete cars and speeding.

Today's accident took place on a section of highway with steep slopes and no clear demarcation lines, where many accidents have occurred in the past, according to Diana Rusinova of a road safety NGO that has complained to authorities in the past.

• 2019: Portugal and Russia

Portugal: 29 German tourists were killed when their bus veered off the road to a restaurant on the mountainous island of Madeira on April 18th.

Russia: A bus fell from a bridge into a frozen river in Siberia on December 1, killing 19 people.

• 2018: Turkey and Bulgaria

Turkey: 17 migrants smuggled through Turkey were killed and 36 were injured when their bus burst into flames after hitting a pole on March 29 near Kars in the east of the country. Most of them were Iranians, Afghans and Pakistanis.

Bulgaria: Twenty pilgrims died after their bus overturned during heavy rain north of Sofia during a trip to an Orthodox monastery on August 25th.

• 2017: Bus Hell

Germany: 18 adult tourists from Saxony died when their tourist bus caught fire after a collision with a truck in Bavaria on July 3.

Italy: 16 people - mostly Hungarian teenagers returning from a ski trip to France - died on January 21st when their bus caught fire after an accident near the northern city of Verona.

Russia: 16 people died when a train crashed into a broken-down bus carrying mostly Uzbek passengers at a railway crossing east of Moscow on October 6th.

• 2015: The worst disaster in 30 years

France: In the worst French road accident in three decades, 43 people died when a bus carrying a retirement club collided with a truck and caught fire near Pusegen in the southwestern part of the country on October 23.

• 2014: Gas Tank explosion

Turkey: A tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) overturned and exploded on a highway in the country's southeast on July 22th, killing 26 people in two passing buses engulfed in flames.

Another 21 people died in central Turkey on January 23rd when their bus overturned on an icy road during the night.

• 2012: 22 children killed

Switzerland: 28 people, including 22 children, died in an accident in Sierra, southern Switzerland, while returning to Belgium from a ski holiday on March 13.

• 2011: Students die in Turkey

Turkey: 25 people, mostly students, died when a truck loaded with bricks collided with a bus near Salat, a village in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, on December 21st.

/BGNES

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