11 dead as overloaded minibus carrying Syrian migrants rams into wall in western Turkey

(Photo: Cihan)

Eleven people were killed and 29 others injured on Saturday when an overloaded minibus carrying Syrian migrants steered off the road and rammed into a roadside retaining wall in the western province of Balıkesir.

The driver lost control of the vehicle as the minibus was driving downhill on the Balıkesir-Havran highway in the district of Havran. News reports said the minibus was overloaded, carrying more than twice its authorized passenger load. The bus was headed towards the Aegean coastal town of Ayvalık, where the migrants had planned to cross over to the Greek island of Lesbos. The passengers had life vests for the trip packed with them along with their belongings.

One of the dead was a Turkish national, while the remaining 10 were Syrians, news reports said. The minibus' 23-year-old Turkish driver was among the injured.

Turkey hosts close to 2 million Syrians who fled the civil war in their county while only about 200,000 of them are accommodated in refugee camps. Hoping for better living conditions, many of them resort to seeking the help of smugglers in an attempt to migrate to European countries.