Motorway crashes in Hungary leave 8 dead

BUDAPEST: Two traffic accidents involving a truck and a minibus from Moldova left eight people thought to be foreign nationals dead early Friday in western Hungary, officials said.

Both crashes happened early in the morning near the city of Gyor, on the M1 motorway, and involved vehicles with Moldovan licence plates.

Around 4.30am, a truck with Moldovan plates collided with a construction vehicle, killing the truck driver at the scene, a police statement said.

Less than 45 minutes later, a minibus carrying nine people crashed into a truck that had stopped because of the earlier accident, it said.

Seven of the minivan passengers died at the scene, and two were injured.

A police spokeswoman told AFP the nationalities of the victims were not yet confirmed.

“All we know is that the drivers of the truck and the minibus were travelling in vehicles with Moldovan licence plates,” she said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar posted a message of condolence on Facebook.

“On behalf of the government, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families of the eight foreign nationals who lost their lives in the accident”, he said.