At least 34 people died in two serious traffic accidents in south-eastern Turkey on Saturday. According to the authorities, almost 60 others were injured in the accidents, which occurred independently of one another. The first accident, which killed 15, occurred between Gaziantep and Nizip in south-eastern Anatolia. The provincial government of Gaziantep said 31 people were injured.
The number of deaths had previously been given as 16, but the provincial government later corrected the balance. According to the Turkish news agency DHA, an ambulance, a fire truck and a vehicle belonging to a journalist team, all of which were traveling to the scene of the accident, were hit head-on by a bus.
According to DHA, the driver of the bus was questioned on Saturday evening about the circumstances of the accident.
According to local media, three firefighters, four paramedics and two employees of the Turkish news agency Ilhas were among the 15 dead. Images released by the DHA news agency showed the rear of a partially torn open ambulance 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. Koca initially spoke of 16 deaths, later he announced that the number of victims had “unfortunately increased to 19”. 26 other people were injured.
Video footage released by Turkish media showed the truck smashing into several vehicles at full speed and pedestrians trying to flee.
