A first accident involved an ambulance, a bus and a vehicle belonging to a team of journalists on a Gaziantep-Nizip highway relay. The second happened in Derik, a town in southeastern Turkey, where a truck’s brakes gave out.
At least 32 people were killed and 50 others injured in two traffic accidents in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, Turkish media reported.
A first crash involving an ambulance and a coach left 16 dead and 21 injured on a highway connecting the city of Gaziantep with the city of Nizip.
Four rescuers, three firefighters and two journalists killed
According to Turkey’s DHA news agency, an ambulance, a fire engine and a vehicle belonging to a journalist team traveling to the scene of an accident were hit head-on by a bus traveling on the same highway.
According to local media, four rescuers, three firefighters and two journalists from the Turkish news agency Ilhas are among the 16 dead.
Images released by the DHA agency showed the partially shredded rear of an ambulance, as well as the bus involved in the accident, lying on one side with the front ripped open.
At least 16 dead in Derik
A few hours later, according to the Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, 16 other people were killed and almost 30 injured in an accident with a truck 250 km to the east.
“16 people died and 29 others were injured, eight of them seriously, in the accident after the brakes of a truck broke and hit a crowd in Derik,” Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
Videos broadcast by the Turkish press show a driver losing control of his truck, several vehicles hitting full speed and pedestrians trying to flee.
According to the official Turkish news agency Anadolu, a traffic accident involving three vehicles had occurred shortly before in the same place. Rescue workers were on site when the truck drove into the crowd.