At least 46 people, including 12 children, were killed Monday night when a bus carrying citizens of northern Macedonia caught fire en route to Skopje after a visit to Constantinople (Istanbul).

Nikolai Nikolov, a Bulgarian Interior Ministry official, said the tragedy, which unfolded at 2 am (Greek time), on a section of a highway near the village of Bosnek, about 40km south of the capital Sofia, resulted in 46 out of the 53 passengers being killed, with seven managing to escape after jumping out of the burning bus.

The seven survivors, who were burnt, were rushed to the emergency department of a Sofia hospital, Nikolov told the state-run BNT television network. Their condition is characterised as stable.

At least 12 children were among the victims, Bulgarian news agency BGNES and other Bulgarian media reported.