6 migrants die in crash after police try to stop a van in Bulgaria

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Six migrants died, while three others and their driver were injured in a vehicle crash near the Black Sea city of Burgas, a senior interior ministry official said Friday.

The incident occurred a short time before midnight Thursday as police tried to stop a van with Romanian registration plates carrying nine migrants who had entered the country illegally, border police chief Anton Zlatanov told reporters.

He said the driver repeatedly refused to stop at the signals given and, eventually, attempted to evade spike strips set by the police. The van crashed, leading to the six fatalities. The Romanian driver and the three surviving migrants received first aid at the scene. Preliminary data suggested that the migrants were from Afghanistan.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 6.5 million, is located on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Europe. Only a small number of them plan to stay in the EU’s poorest member, using Bulgaria instead as a transit corridor on their way westward.

Zlatanov said that over the past two years up to 20 organized criminal groups involved in migrant trafficking have been neutralized.

“Zero migration is not possible because these are global processes. However, we have reduced migration pressure by about 70% compared with last year,” he said.