At Least 12 Killed as Bus Carrying Illegal Immigrants Crashes in Turkey

At Least 12 Killed as Bus Carrying Illegal Immigrants Crashes in Turkey
Police tape in a file photo. (Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images)
The Associated Press
7/11/2021
Updated:
7/11/2021

ISTANBUL—A minibus carrying illegal immigrants overturned and caught fire in eastern Turkey, killing 12 people and injuring 20 others, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported Sunday.

The vehicle tumbled into a ditch while traveling overnight near Yumakli in Van province, which borders Iran.

Television broadcasts showed groaning survivors being treated by the roadside as emergency workers sifted through the burnt-out wreckage.

Illegal immigrants, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, regularly cross the Iranian border into Turkey on foot before being ferried west to cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.

In June 2020, more than 60 migrants drowned in Lake Van when their boat sank.