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CatastropheTurkey

Turkey: Dozens dead in duplicate road crashes

August 20, 2022

In separate accidents some 250 kilometers apart in Turkey, commercial vehicles plowed into emergency teams who were attending to earlier crashes. Firefighters and paramedics were among the dead.

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Emergency teams in front of debris from traffic collision
A bus collided with emergency teams on a highway in southern Turkey, killing at least 15Image: IHA/AP/picture alliance

At least 32 people were killed in two major road accidents in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, local media reported, with both tragedies unfolding in a similar manner.

What do we know about the first crash?

In the first incident, in Gaziantep province, a bus crashed into an ambulance, a firefighting truck and a broadcast vehicle carrying journalists who were responding to an earlier crash, the DHA news agency reported.

Sixteen people were killed, including three firefighters, two ambulance workers and two journalists, and 21 more injured, the local governor said.

He added that the bus overturned and slid for 200 meters, hitting an ambulance and the broadcast truck, he added.

Turkey: Dozens die in road accidents

Photos from the scene showed the back of an ambulance ripped out and metal debris was strewn around it. 

The collisions occurred on the highway between the cities of Gaziantep and Nizip.

What happened in the second crash?

In a second accident some 250 kilometers (155 miles) east, a truck plowed into pedestrians who had gathered at the site of an earlier accident involving three vehicles.

Again emergency responders were at the scene, in the town of Derik in Mardin province when the lorry crashed into the crowd.

Sixteen people were killed and a further 29 injured.

A video grab of a road accident in Derik, Mardin province, Turkey on August 20, 2022
Reports say the truck crashed into pedestrians near a gas staton in the town of Derik in Mardin province.Image: DHA/AFP/Getty Images

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that eight of the wounded in Derik were in critical condition.

A Turkish official said the Derik accident occurred after the brakes gave out on the truck.

Turkish media shared footage of the vehicle careening towards nearby vehicles and pedestrians trying to flee.

An investigation has been launched.

mm, sdi/dj (AP, AFP, dpa)