Turkey: 16 dead, 29 injured after truck crashes into crowd

At least 16 people were killed and 29 injured in a new road accident in Turkey this Saturday after a truck accidentally drove into pedestrians, the Turkish health minister said.

16 people were killed and 29 injured, eight of them seriously, in an accident after a truck braked on a crowd in Derrick, located in the south of Martin province (east of the country, near the Syrian border, ed), Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Videos broadcast by the Turkish press show the driver losing control of his truck, hitting several vehicles at full speed, and pedestrians trying to flee.

According to Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency, a traffic accident involving three vehicles occurred at the same location shortly before, and rescue teams were on the scene when the truck drove into the crowd.

Another accident on the Turkish highway between Gaziantep and Nisib this Saturday morning. 16 people have already died and 21 others have been injured, 250 km to the west. An ambulance, a fire truck and a group of journalists headed to the scene of the first accident collided head-on with a passenger bus traveling on the same highway.

According to Anadolu Agency, Justice Minister Bekir Bostock announced that Derrick’s attorney general’s office would launch an investigation into the double crash.

“I wish mercy (…) to our citizens who lost their lives in this tragic accident. All our means are mobilized,” he wrote on Twitter, wishing “the speedy recovery of the injured”.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu will visit on Saturday evening at the behest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Anadolu Agency reported.