17 dead, 36 injured as 14-seater bus with 50 illegal immigrants crash in Turkey

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, the bus, which crashed late Thursday on the Igdir-Kars highway, was carrying nationals from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Images in Turkish media showed smoke rising from the charred bus with its front smashed and migrants lying on the road with bloodied faces.

Igdir province governor, Enver Unlu mentioned to the reporters at the scene saying: “when we arrived at the scene we found a… migrant tragedy.”

“We are deeply saddened that the frequent smuggling of migrants, which goes on in our province, has ended in a traffic accident.” He adds.

While officials sought to identify the driver, the Igdir public prosecutor has opened an investigation into the incident. It was found that the bus had capacity for 14 people but over 50 people including women were on board.

On the same route, thirteen illegal migrants were detained by security forces inside another bus, which Anadolu said had been on the same journey as the one involved in the crash.