11 dead, 27 injured after coach crashes into lorry in western Turkey, officials say

Eleven people were killed and 27 injured in western Turkey on Sunday when a coach turned over after colliding with a lorry, authorities said.

The coach crashed near the entry to a motorway between the city of Bursa and the seaside city of Izmir, the governor’s office of the local Manisa district said on social media, stating the death toll.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said.

“We are closely following the situation, in coordination with all the institutions concerned,” he said on social media.

A photograph published by the news agency DHA showed the coach lying across safety barriers with its windscreen smashed.

Turkish media reported that the drivers of both the coach and the lorry had been detained as part of an investigation into the crash. Their health conditions were not given.

Several reports said the lorry involved was a tow-truck. One outlet, Hurriyet, said early indications suggested it could have been driving on the wrong side of the road.