The revelations that come to light regarding the tragic accident that took place today in Bulgaria are frightening .
“The driver died instantly and therefore no one was there to open the doors,” police chief Stanimir Stanev said on television, referring to the accident on the Struma highway, about 30km west of Sofia.
The hikers were returning to Skopje after a weekend of leisure in Istanbul, about 800km away.
“The picture is scary, scary. “I have never seen anything like this before,” said Bulgaria’s caretaker Interior Minister Boyko Raskov.
The cause of the accident is unclear, but the bus appears to have hit a guardrail either before or after it caught fire, Bulgarian officials said.
At least 46 dead
At least 46 people were tragically killed on the  bus . Only 7 of the 53 passengers on the bus in western Bulgaria escaped the blaze and were taken to the Pirogov Emergency Hospital in Sofia. The seven are being treated in a stable condition.
The accident with the 46 dead is the deadliest in the history of Bulgaria. The passengers belonged mainly to the Albanian community of Northern Macedonia.
“Human driver error or mechanical damage are the two original versions of the cause of the accident,” said Boroslav Sarafov, head of the Bulgarian Investigation Service.
Television footage shows the bus completely burned in the middle of the highway, which was wet due to rain.
