Gül made the statement on his Twitter account.
“According to the initial determinations, the accident involving a bus, rescue team and ambulance at the 20th kilometer of the TAG Gaziantep-Nizip Highway, 15 of our citizens, including 3 firefighters, 2 health personnel and 2 journalists, died and 22 of our citizens have been injured,” he announced on Twitter.
However, the death toll seems to be increasing.
Gül explained that 16 people lost their lives in the accident. “A vehicle has an accident. While firefighters, medical teams and other colleagues are responding, a bus is involved in an accident 200 meters behind. Our citizen passed away. At the moment, the interventions continue. The injured are being referred to the hospital. Condolences to our nation,” he said.
A general view of the accident scene, Gaziantep, Türkiye, Aug. 20, 2022. (AA Photo)
Ihlas News Agency (IHA) employees Muhammed Abdulkadir Esen and Umut Yakup Tanrıöver died while they were on their way to another assignment, who saw the accident and stopped to help the injured.
According to reports, a passenger bus crashed into the parked ambulance and fire truck on the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep Highway, which came to respond to another accident where a vehicle fell into a ditch.
An ambulance, fire brigade truck and an IHA live news broadcast vehicle were hit by a passenger bus. According to the initial reports, IHA reporter Muhammet Abdulkadir Esen and Umut Yakup Tanrıöver, who were operating the live broadcast vehicle, lost their lives and many other people were injured.
IHA reporter Said Vakkas, who spoke about the accident on live broadcast, could not holdback his tears. Vakkas said: “We lost our colleagues with whom we had worked together just several hours ago. It is very difficult to explain things. This place is like a battlefield. When we arrived, we were met with a terrible sight. It’s very bad, the situation is very bad. No one can understand how it happened.
Health personnel shed tears for their colleagues who lost their lives in the accident, Gaziantep, Türkiye, Aug. 20, 2022. (AA Photo)
“It’s a very big accident. Among the dead are firefighters, paramedics and two of our colleagues. We can’t find anything to say, it is very difficult to explain something like this. We lost our friends and 16 citizens with whom we worked with.”
The accident occurred at around 11.30 a.m. on the Gaziantep-Nizip Highway. Police, ambulance and fire brigade teams were dispatched to the region after a car crashed into a creek bed. Crews stopped their vehicles on the highway to assist the victims. During this time, a passenger bus crashed into the live broadcast vehicle, an ambulance and a fire truck and overturned.
A large number of extra medical teams were directed to the region. The injured were taken to surrounding hospitals by ambulance.
Source:dailysabah.com