Written by By Rosanna Lauer, CNN
The Bulgarian Interior Ministry says 45 people, including 12 children, have died after a bus caught fire in southeastern Bulgaria.
The Belene coach bus went up in flames Friday evening in a forest near the town of Kornoi.
The bus was carrying a group of 58 tourists, most of them Bulgarian.
Sixteen people, including five children, have been identified so far, authorities say.
Some 58 people, many of them tourists, were on board the bus at the time, when it caught fire near the town of Kornoi, in southeast Bulgaria. There were no survivors. https://t.co/D8SCt9nS39 pic.twitter.com/5PNYPPPtR0 — BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 28, 2016
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at a news conference that some people are still missing.
“After the bodies have been identified, medical treatment will be provided in order to reduce the numbers,” he said.
The Bulgarian Embassy in Russia sent medics to Kornoi, giving oxygen and rescue treatment to the injured.
Authorities say the bus had only two exits, a well-constructed one and a hole.
Firefighters, police and firefighters’ cars rushed to the scene Friday evening.
The Kornoi fire station has received more than 600 calls about the fire.
The Bulgarian National Tourist Board said in a tweet that the route between Bulgaria and Armenia is popular with tourists.
The driver had been found dead inside the bus, local authorities said.
“The cause of the fire is not clear,” the interior ministry said in a statement Saturday.
On October 20, two bus passengers died when the vehicle overturned after hitting a building in Turkey, and 64 passengers and five crew members were injured.