11 dead and dozens injured in Bulgarian motorway pile-up

Eleven people have been killed and 48 injured in pile-ups on both carriageways of a motorway in south-eastern Bulgaria, the authorities said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Rumen Radev told reporters that the crashes happened on Tuesday morning near the city of Yambol, on the Trakia motorway linking the capital Sofia with Burgas on the Black Sea. More than 50 cars and heavy vehicles were involved.Police, firefighters and ambulance crews rushed to the highway. Several images and videos on social media showed several cars and trucks piled up on the highway, with many vehicles crushed, overturned and burned. Mihail Kasherov, the regional governor of Bulgaria's Sliven city, said more than 70 vehicles were involved.

JUST IN - 11 people died and dozens injured in pileups on both sides of a highway in southeastern Bulgaria, whose roads rank as the most dangerous in the EU, authorities said. https://t.co/CcpeOnGCKQ

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According to local reports, a man managed to rescue another person from a burning vehicle by smashing the window with a car jack. Another person escaped death by getting out moments before more cars collided with their vehicle. According to the Novinite news outlet, the two pile-ups happened a few kilometres apart near the Zimnitsa junction, one on the Burgas-bound carriageway and the other heading towards Sofia. The accident started with a collision between a bus and a truck on the side of the highway heading towards Burgas.