(Ankara) Ten people were killed and forty others were injured, nine of them seriously, on Sunday in a bus accident in Mersin, southern Turkey, Turkish authorities announced.
“A coach traveling from Diyarbakir to Istanbul collided with two cars and a truck on the highway in Yenice district of Tarsus, Mersin province. Ten of our fellow citizens lost their lives,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X.
Forty other people were injured, nine of them seriously, said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
The intercity bus connecting Diyarbakir (south-east) to Istanbul suddenly veered off course and hit two cars and a truck coming in the opposite direction, according to Turkish media.
The injured were transferred to hospitals in Mersin and Adana, in southern Turkey, the health minister added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his condolences to the victims’ relatives in a message shared on his X account.
“Our competent authorities immediately opened the necessary investigation into the accident,” he said.